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INSTITUTES 


OF THE 


CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 


JOHN CALVIN. 


TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL LATIN, AND COLLATED WITH 
THE AUTHOR’S LAST EDITION IN FRENCH, 


BY JOHN ALLEN. 


Non tamen omnino potuit mors invida totum 
Tollere Calvinum terris ; eterna manebunt 
Ingenii monumenta tui: et livoris iniqui 
Languida paulatim cum flamma resederit, omnes 
Religio qua pura nitet se fundet in oras 

Fama, tui. . oss cscs ccccsescsecce BucHAaNan 


SIXTH AMERICAN EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED, 


IN. TWO VOLUMES. 


VOL. I. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 


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ADVERTISEMENT. 


Tue Presbyterian Board of Publication, in introducing to the 
public a new edition of the inimitable “ Institutes of tht Chris- 
tian Religion,’’ do not wish to be regarded as adopting all the 


sentiments and forms of expression of the venerated writer ; 


although they agree with him in his general views, and admire 
the skill and learning with which he has pointed out the rela- 
tive positions and bearings of the great doctrines of revelation. 
Calvin was better qualified than any of his contemporaries, to pre- 


‘ sent revealed truth in a connected and systematic form. His 


great natural abilities, his profound erudition, his well balanced 
and discriminating judgment, and his habits of diligent inves- 
tigation, eminently fitted him to prepare such a work as the 
“Institutes,” in which the doctrines of the gospel are so clearly 
developed and harmonized, that the system has been closely 
associated with his name, from the period of its publication 
until the present time. 

The honour of Calvin consisted, not in suggesting ingenious 
theories and speculations, but in his general accuracy in inter- 
preting the Holy Scriptures, and in detecting and pointing out 


the connection of Scripture doctrines, which, instead of being 


insulated, were shown to occupy their respective places in 
forming a complete and perfect system of Divine truth. The 
doctrines embraced in the formularies of the Presbyterian 
Church are termed Calvinistic, from their general accordance 
with Calvin’s interpretation of scriptural truth; but the admis- 
sion of this term, as explanatory of their general character, is 
not understood as by any means implying an entire coincidence 
in the views of Calvin, or a submission to his authority as an 
umpire in theological controversies. Although a learned and 
pious, he was a fallible man; and his opinions, although de- 
serving of profound respect, are not to be blindly followed. 
While admitting that the ‘“ Institutes,” considering the times 
and circumstances in which they were written, form an inva- 
luable body of divinity, still it must be acknowledged, that 
some of the doctrines therein maintained have been more 
luminously set forth in modern times. We would especially 
mention as an instance the doctrine of justification through the 


ROObH65 


4, ADVERTISEMENT. 


imputed righteousness of Christ. Some of the expressions of 
Calvin on the subject of reprobation may be regarded as too un- 
qualified, and we can no further endorse them than as they are 
incorporated in the Presbyterian Confession of Faith. The most 
decidedly objectionable feature in the ‘Christian Institutes,” 
is to be found in the explanation of the Fourth Commandment, 
where the author asserts the abrogation of the Sabbath. In 
Calvin’s view, this ordinance was a mere type of better bless- 
ings, and, with the, types and ceremonies of the old dispensa- 
tion, was done away by the introduction of a new and better 
dispensation. In this opinion there can be no doubt that he 
greatly erred; and so universal is the conviction of the Church 
on the perpetual obligation of the Sabbath as a moral institu- 
tion, that no danger is to be apprehended from a contrary view, 
even under the sanction of so great a name as that of Calvin, 
In justice to his opinion on this subject, however, it should be 
stated, that he distinctly recognized not only the propriety but 
the necessity of a consecration of stated days for public reli- 
g10uSs services, without which regulation, he declares that ‘it is » 
3o far from being possible to preserve order and decorum, that 
if it were abolished, the Church would be in imminent danger 
of immediate convulsion and ruin.” It is much to be Jamented 
that so great a mind should have been led astray on so im- 
portant a point by attempting to avoid an opposite extreme. 

The Board of Publication have been induced to undertake 
this edition, by the very generous offer of the First and Se- 
cond Presbyterian Churches in Baltimore, of which the Rev. 
John Backus and the Rev. Dr. R. J. Breckinridge are respec- 
tively Pastors, to defray the expense of stereotyping the work. 
Under the direction of the Executive Committee of the Board, 
the translation has been diligently compared throughout with 
the original Latin and French, and various corrections have 
been made to convey the meaning of the author more dis- 
tinctly and accurately. This laborious duty has been per- 
formed by a member of the Publishing Committee. The 
intrinsic excellence of the work, taken in connection with the 
attractive style, and comparative cheapness, of the present 
edition, induces the Committee to hope, that it may be widely 
circulated and carefully studied, both by the clergy and laymen 
of the Presbyterian Church. 


In behalf of the Executive Committee, 


WILLIAM M. ENGLES, Eprror. 


THE 


TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE. 


Tne English Reader is here presented with a transla- 
tion of one of the principal theological productions of the 
sixteenth century. Few persons, into whose hands this 
translation is likely to fall, will require to be informed 
that the Author of the original work was one of an illus- 
trious triumvirate, who acted a most conspicuous part in 
what has been generally and justly denominated Tur Re- 
FORMATION. Of that important revolution in ecclesiastical 
affairs, so necessary to the interests of true religion, and 
productive of such immense advantages even to civil so- 
ciety, Luraer, Zuincie, and Carvin, were honoured, by 
the providence of God, to be the most highly distinguished 
instruments. It is no degradation to the memory of the 
many other ornaments of that age, to consider them as 
brilliant satellites in the firmament of the Church, revolving 
round these primary luminaries, to whom they were in- 
debted for much of that lustre which they diffused over the 
earth ; while they were all together revolving around one 
and the same common centre, though, it must be confessed, 
with considerable varieties of approximation, velocity, and 
obliquity in their courses; yet all derivimg more or less 
copious communications of light from the great Sun of the 
moral system, THE TRUE LicHT OF THE WORLD. 

Differing in the powers of their minds, as well as in the 
temperament of their bodily constitutions, placed in dif- 
ferent circumstances, and called to act in different scenes, 
these leading Reformers, though engaged in the same com- 
mon cause, displayed their characteristic and peculiar ex- 


6 : TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE. 


cellences; which, it is no disparagement of that cause te 
admit, were likewise accompanied by peculiar failings. It 
is not the design of this preface to portray and discriminate 
their respective characters. ‘hey alike devoted their lives 
and labours to rescue Christianity from the absurdities 
superstitions, and vices by which it had been so deplorably 
deformed, mutilated, and obscured, and to recall the atten- 
tion of mankind from the doubtful traditions of men to the 
unerring word of God. But while they were all distin- 
guished Reformers, Calvin has been generally acknowledged 
to have been the most eminent theologian of the three. 

Such was the superiority of the talents and attainments 
of Calvin to those of most other great men, that the strictest 
truth is in danger of being taken for exaggeration. It is 
impossible for any candid and intelligent person to have 
even a slight acquaintance With his writings, without ad- 
miring his various knowledge, extensive learning, profound 
penetration, solid judgment, acute reasoning, pure morality, 
and fervent piety. 

His Commentaries on the Scriptures have been cele- 
brated for a juster method of exposition than had been 
exhibited by any preceding writer. Above a hundred 
years after his death, Poole, the author of the Synopsis, in 
the preface to that valuable work, says, ‘¢ Calvin’s Com- 
mentaries abound in solid discussions of theological subjects, 
and practical improvements of them. Subsequent writers 
have borrowed most of their materials from Calvin, and his 
interpretations adorn the books even of those who repay the 
obligation by reproaching their master.” And nothing can 
more satisfactorily evince the high estimation to which they 
are still entitled from the biblical student, than the follow- 
ing testimony, given, after the lapse of another century, by 
the late learned Bishop Horsley: ‘I hold the memory of 
Calvin in high veneration: his works have a place in my 
library ; and in the study of the Holy Scriptures, he is one 
of the commentators whom I frequently consult.” 


n 


TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE. ’ 


But perhaps, of all the writings of Calvin, none has ex 
cited so much attention as his InstirurEs or THE Curis 
TIAN RELIGION. | 

- His original design in commencing this work is stated 
by himself, in the beginning of his dedication, to have been 
to supply his countrymen, the French, with an elementary 
compendium for their instruction in the principles of true 
religion. But we learn from Beza that, by the time of its 
completion, existing circumstances furnished the Author 
with an additional motive for sending it into the world, 
during his residence at Basil, whither he had retired to 
avoid the persecution which was then raging in France 
against all the dissentients from the Church of Rome.. 
Francis the First, king of France, courted the friendship 
of the Protestant princes of Germany ; and knowing their 
detestation of the cruelties which he employed against his 
subjects of the reformed religion, he endeavoured to excuse 
his conduct by alleging that he caused none to be put to 
death except some few fanatics; who, so far from taking 
the word of God as the rule of their faith, gave themselves up 
to the impulses of their disordered imaginations, and even 
openly avowed a contempt of magistrates and sovereign 
princes. Unable to bear such foul aspersions of his bre- 
thren, Calvin determined on the immediate publication of 
this treatise, which he thought would serve as an answer 
to the calumnies circulated by the enemies of the truth, 
and as an apology for his pious and persecuted country- 
men. 

The Dedication to Francis is one of the most masterly 
compositions of modern times. ‘The purity, elegance, and 
energy of style; the bold, yet respectful, freedom of ad- 
dress; the firm attachment to the Divine word; the 
Christian fortitude in the midst of persecution ; the triam- 
phant refutation of the calumnies of detractors ;_ with other 
qualities which distinguish this celebrated remonstrance, 
will surely permit no reader of taste or piety to withhold 


8 TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE. 


his concurrence from the general admiration which it has 
received. 

The Author composed this treatise in Latin and French , 
and though, at its first appearance, it was little more than 
an outline of what it afterwards became, it was received 
with uncommon approbation, and a second edition of it 
was soon required. How many editions it passed through 
during his life, it is difficult, if not impossible, now to as- 
certain; but it obtained a very extensive circulation, and 
was reprinted several times, and every time was further 
improved and enlarged by him, till, in the year 1559, 
twenty-three years after the first impression, he put the 
finishing hand to his work, and published it in Latin and 
French, with his last corrections and additions. 

The circulation which it enjoyed was not confined to 
persons capable of reading it in the languages in which it 
was written. It was translated into High Dutch, Low 
Dutch, Italian, and Spanish. 

Soon after the publication of the Author’s last edition, 
it was translated from the Latin into English. In this 
language it appears to have reached six editions in the life 
of the Translator. A reflection on the ‘small number of 
persons who may be supposed to have had inclination and 
ability to read such a book at that period, compared with 
the number of readers in the present age, may excite some 
wonder that there should have been a demand for so many 
editions. But no surprise at this circumstance will be 
felt by any person acquainted with the high estimation 
in which the works of the Author were held by the vene- 
rable Reformers of the Church of England, and their 
immediate successors, as well as by the great majority of 
religious people in this country. Thisis not a question of 
opinion, but an undeniable fact. Dr. Heylin, the admirer 
and biographer of Archbishop Laud, speaking of the early 
part of the seventeenth century, says, that Calvin’s “* Book 
of Institutes was, for the most part, the foundation on which 


TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE. ty 


che young divines of those times did build their studies.” 
The great Dr. Saunderson, who was chaplain to King 
Charles I., and, after the restoration of Charles II., was 
created Bishop of Lincoln, says, ‘* When I began to set 
myself to the study of divinity as my proper business, 
Calvin’s Institutions were recommended to me, as they were 
generally to all young scholars in those times, as the best 
and perfectest system of divinity, and the fittest to be laid. 
as a ground-work in the study of this profession. And, 
indeed, my expectation was not at all deceived in the reading 
of those Institutions.” * 

The great changes which have taken place in our lan- 
guage render it difficult to form a correct opinion of the me- 
rits of Mr. Norton’s translation, which was first published 
about two hundred and fifty years ago. It must give 
rather a favourable idea of its execution, that it was care- 
fully revised by the Rev. David Whitehead, a man of 
learning and piety, who, in the reign of Henry VIII., was 
nominated by Archbishop Cranmer toa bishopric in Ireland, 
and, soon after the accession of Queen Elizabeth, was 
solicited by that Princess to fill the metropolitan see of 
Canterbury, but declined the preferment. But, what- 
ever were the merits or defects of that translation at its 
first appearance, it has long been too antiquated, uncouth, 
and obscure, to convey any just idea of the original work, 
and abounds with passages which, to the modern English 
reader, cannot but be altogether unintelligible. 

The intrinsic excellence of the book, its importance in 
the history of theological controversy, the celebrity of the 


* It is not uncommon, among persons of a certain class, to represent the leading 
principles of Calvin as unfavourable to practical religion, and to that kind of 
preaching which is adapted to affect the hearts and consciences of the hearers. A 
reference to the most able and intelligent theologians and preachers who have 
held those principles, and upon whom they may reasonably be concluded to have 
exerted their genuine and fullest influence, will amply evince the inaccuracy of 
this representation. Of the excellent divine quoted above, King Charles I. was 
wont to say, that “ he carried his ears to hear other preachers, but his conscience 
to hear Mr. Saunderson.” 


VOL. I. pe 


* 


10 | TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE. 


Author, the application of his name to designate the leading 
principles of the system he maintained, and the frequent 
collision of sentiment respecting various parts of that sys- 
tem, combine with other considerations to render it a matter 
of wonder, that it has not long ago been given to the 
English public in a new dress. The importance of it has 
also been much increased by the recent controversy respect- 
ing Calvinism, commenced by Dr. Tomline, the present 
Bishop of Lincoln, in which such direct and copious re- 
ference has been made to the writings of this Reformer, 
and especially to his Curistian Institutes. ‘These cir- 
cumstances and considerations have led to the present 
translation and publication, which, from the very respect- 
able encouragement it has received, the Translator trusts 
will be regarded as an acceptable service to the religious 
public. 

Among the different methods of translation which have 
been recommended, he has adopted that which appeared 
to him best fitted to the present undertaking. A servile 
adherence to the letter of the original, the style of which 
is so very remote from the English idiom, he thought 
would convey a very inadequate representation of the 
work ; such extreme fidelity, to use an expression of 
Cowper’s, being seldom successful, even in a faithful 
transmission of the precise sentiments of the author to the 
mind of the reader. A mere attention to the ideas and 
sentiments of the original, to the neglect of its style and 
manner, would expose the Translator of a treatise of this 
nature to no small danger of misrepresenting the meaning 
of the Author, by too frequent and unnecessary deviations 
from his language. He has, therefore, aimed at a medium 
between servility and looseness, and endeavoured to follow 
the style of the original as far as the respective idioms of 
the Latin and English would admit. 

After the greater part of the work had been translated, 
he had the happiness to meet with an edition in French 


TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE. 11 


of which he has availed himself in translating the re 
mainder, and in the revision of what he had translated 
before. Every person, who understands any two lan- 
guages, will be aware that the ambiguity of one will 
sometimes be explained by the precision of another; and, 
notwithstanding the acknowledged superiority of the Latin 
to the French in most of the qualities which constitute the 
excellence of a language, the case of the article is not the 
only one in which Calvin’s French elucidates his Latin. 

The scriptural quotations which occur in the work, the 
Translator has given, generally, in the words of our com- 
mon English version ; sometimes according to the readings 
m the margin of that version; and, in a few instances, he 
has literally translated the version adopted by the Author, 
where the context required his peculiar reading to be pre- 
served. Almost all the writers of that age, writing chiefly 
in a dead language, were accustomed to speak of their ad- 
versaries in language which the polished manners of the 
modern times have discarded, and which would now be 
deemed illiberal and scurrilous. Where these cases occur, 
the Translator has not thought himself bound to a literal 
rendering of every word, or at liberty to refine them en- 
tirely away, but has adopted such expressions as he appre- 
hends will give a faithful representation of the spirit of the 
Author to modern readers. 

Intending this work as a complete system of theology, 
the Author has made it the repository of his sentiments on 
all points of faith and practice. The whole being distri- 
buted into four parts, in conformity to the Apostles’ Creed, 
and this plan being very different from that of most other 
bodies of divinity, the Translator has borrowed from the 
Latin edition of Amsterdam a very perspicuous general 
syllabus, which will give the reader a clear view of the 
original design and plan of the treatise. 

He would not be understood to represent these Institutes 
as a perfect summary of Christian doctrines and morals, or 


12 TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE. 


to profess an unqualified approbation of all the sentiments 
they contain. This is a homage to which no uninspired 
writings can ever be entitled. But the simplicity of the 
method; the freedom from the barbarous terms, captious 
questions, minute distinctions, and intricate subtilties of 
many other Divines ; the clearness and closeness of argu- 
ment; the complete refutation of the advocates of the 
Romish Church, sometimes by obvious conclusions from 
their professed principles, sometimes by clear proofs of the 
absurdities they involve ; the intimate knowledge of eccle- 
siastical history; the intimate acquaintance with former 
theological controversies ; the perspicuity of scriptural in- 
terpretation; and the uniform spirit of genuine piety, 
which pervade the book, cannot escape the observation of 
any judicious reader. 

It has been advised by some persons that the translation 
should be accompanied by a few notes, to elucidate and 
enforce some passages, and to correct others; but, on all 
the consideration which the Translator has been able to 
give to this subject, he has thought it would be best to 
content himself with the humble office of placing the senti- 
ments of Calvin before the reader, with all the fidelity in 
his power, without any addition or limitation. He hopes 
that the present publication will serve the cause of true 
religion, and that the reputation of the work itself will 
sustain no diminution from the form in which it now 
appears. 


Lonpon, May 12, 1813. 


CONTENTS. 


Tae Avutuor’s Prerace to the edition published in 1559............. p- 17 

MP MMBCREPY TONGS) othe Gtr Pe ETE vie Se CEU e's bh) Os wd ot Ch othe le cbeccoodsees -20 

CnC Mraae 08 TEA POA Cy ch ceo, 9 a's aos Sate bie dildo ic 0 sie ble oS ald ng palid ocblenae’ 41 
BOOK I. 


Chap. I. The connection between the knowledge of God and the knowledge 
of ourselves. 

Chap. Il. The nature and tendency of the knowledge of God. 

Chap. III. The mind of man naturally endued with the knowledge of God. 

Chap. IV. This knowledge extinguished or corrupted, partly by ignorance, + 
partly by wickedness. 

‘Chap. V. The knowledge of God conspicuous in the formation and continual 
government of the world. 

_ Chap. VI. The guidance and teaching of the Scripture necessary to lead to 
the knowledge of God the Creator. 

Chap. VII. The testimony of the Spirit necessary to confirm the Scripture, 
in order to the complete establishment of its authority. The suspension 
of its authority, on the judgment of the Church, an impious fiction. 

Chap. VIII. Rational proofs to establish the belief of the Scripture. 

Chap. IX. The fanaticism which discards the Scripture, under the pretence 
of resorting to immediate revelations, subversive of every principle of 
piety. 

Chap. X. All idolatrous worship discountenanced in the Scripture, by its 
exclusive opposition of the true God to all the fictitious deities of the 
heathen. . 

Chap. XI. Unlawfulness of ascribing to God a visible form. All idolatry a 
defection from the true God. 

Chap. XII. God contradistinguished from idols, that he may be solely and 
supremely worshipped. 

Chap. XIII. One Divine essence, containing three persons, taught in the Scrip- 
ture since the beginning. 


14 CONTENTS. 


Chap. XIV. The true God distinguished in the Scripture from all fictitious 
ones, by the creation of the world 

Chap. XV. The state of man at his creation; the faculties of the soul, the 
Divine image, free-will, and the original purity of his nature. 

Chap. XV1. God’s preservation and support of the world by his power and 
his government of every part of it by his providence. 

Chap. XVII. The proper application of this doctrine to render it useful to us. 

. Chap. XVIII. God uses the agency of the impious, and inclines their minds to 

execute his judgments, yet without the least stain of his perfect purity. 


BOOK II. 


Chap. I. The fall and defection of Adam the cause of the curse inflicted on all 
mankind, and of the degeneracy from their primitive condition. The doc- 
trine of original sin. 

Chap. II. Man in his present state despoiled of freedom of will, and subjected 
to a miserable slavery. 

Chap. III. Every thing that proceeds from the corrupt nature of man worthy 
of condemnation. 

Chap. IV. The operation of God in the hearts of men. v” 

Chap. V. A refutation of the objections commonly urged in the support of 
free-will. 

Chap. VI. Redemption for lost man to be sought in Christ. 

Chap. VII. The law given not to confine the ancient people to itself, byt to 
encourage their hope of salvation in Christ, till the time of his coming. 

Chap. VIII. An exposition of the moral law. 

Chap. IX. Christ, though known to the Jews under the law, yet aaa re- 
vealed only in the gospel. 

Chap. X. The similarity of the Old and New Testaments. 

Chap. XI. The difference of the two Testaments. 

Chap. XII. The necessity of Christ becoming man, in order to fulfil the office 
of Mediator. 

Chap. XIII. Christ’s assumption of real humanity. 

Chap. XIV. The union of the two natures constituting the person of the Me- 
diator. 

Chap. XV. The consideration of Christ’s three offices, prophetical, regal, and 
sacerdotal, necessary to our knowing the end of his mission from the 
Father, and the benefits which he confers on us. 

Chap. XVI. Christ’s execution of the office of a Redeemer to procure our sal- 
vation ; his death, resurreetion, and ascension to heaven. 

Chap. XVII. Christ truly and properly said to have merited the grace of God 
and salvation for us. 


CONTENTS. 15 


BOOK II. 


Chap. I. What is declared concerning Christ rendered profitable to us by the 
secret operation of the Spirit. 
Chap. II. Faith defined, and its properties described. |» 
Chap. III. On repentance. 
‘SChap. [V. The sophistry and jargon of the schools concerning repentance, 
very remote from the purity of the gospel. On confession and satise 


faction. 

Chap. V. The supplements to their doctrine of satisfactions, indulgences, and 
purgatory. 

Chap. VI. The life of a Christian. Scriptural arguments and exhortations 
to it. 


Chap. VII. Summary of the Christian life. Self-denial. ~ 
Chap. VIII. Bearing the cross, which is a branch of self-denial. 
Chap. [X. Meditation on the future life. 
Chap. X. The right use of the present life and its supports. ~ 
Chap. XI. Justification by faith, The name and thing defined. 
Chap. XII. A consideration of the Divine tribunal necessary te a serious con 
viction of gratuitous justification. 
Chap. XIII. Two things necessary to be observed in gratuitous justifi- 
cation. 
Chap. XIV. The commencement and continual progress of justifica- 
tion. | 
Chap. XV. Boasting of the merit of works equally subversive of God’s glory 
in the gift of righteousness, and of the certainty of salvation. 
Chap. XVI. A refutation of the injurious calumnies of the Papists against 
this doctrine. 
Chap. XVII. The harmony between the promises of the law and those of the 
gospel. 
Chap. XVIII. Justification from works not to be inferred from the promise of 
a reward. . 
Chap. XIX. On Christian liberty. 
Chap. XX. On prayer, the principal exercise of faith, and the medium of our * 
daily reception of Divine blessings. 
\Chap. XXI. Eternal election, or God’s predestination of some to salvation, and 
2: of others to destruction. 
\onap, XXII. Testimonies of Scripture in confirmation of this doctrine. 


Chap. XXIII. A refutation of the calumnies generally, but unjustly, urged 
against this doctrine. 
chat XXIV. Election confirmed by the Divine call. The destined destruc:  « 
tion of the reprobate procured by themselves. 
Chap. XXV. The final resurrection. 


16 CONTENTS. 


BOOK IV. 


Chap. 1. The true Church, and the necessity of our union with her, being the 
mother of all the pious. 

Chap. II. The true and false Church compared. 

Chap. [II. The teachers and ministers of the Church, their election and office. 

Chap. IV. The state of the ancient Church, and the mode of government prac- 
tised before the Papacy. 

Chap. V. The ancient form of government entirely subverted by the Papal 
tyranny. 

Chap. VI. The primacy of the Roman see. 

Chap. VII. The rise and progress of the Papal power to its present eminence 
attended with the loss of liberty to the Church, and the ruin of all mode- 
ration. 

Chap. VIII. The power of the Church respecting articles of faith, and its 
licentious perversion under the Papacy, to the corruption of all purity of 

_ doctrine. 

Chap. IX. Councils ; their authority. | 

Chap. X. The power of legislation, in which the pope and his adherents have 
most cruelly tyrannized over the minds, and tortured the bodies of men. 

Chap. XI. The jurisdiction of the Church, and its abuse under the Papacy. 

Chap. XII. The discipline of the Church; its principal use in censures and 
excommunication. 

Chap. XIII. Vows; the misery of rashly making them. 

Chap. XIV. The sacraments. 

Chap. XV. Baptism. 

Chap. XVI. Pedobaptism perfectly consistent with the institution of Christ, 
and the nature of the sign. 

Chap. XVII. The Lord’s supper and its advantages. 

Chap. XVIIJ. The Papal mass not only a sacrilegious profanation of the Lord’s 
supper, but a total annihilation of it. 

Chap. XIX. The five other ceremonies, falsely called sacraments, proved not 
to be sacraments; their true nature explained. 

Chap. XX. On civil government. 


THE 


AUTHOR’S PREFACE 


. TO 
AN EDITION PUBLISHED IN THE YEAR 1559, 


WITH HIS 


LAST CORRECTIONS AND ADDITIONS. 


In the first edition of this work, not expecting that success 
which the Lord, in his infinite goodness, hath given, I handled 
the- subject for the most part in a superficial manner, as is 
usual in small treatises. But when I understood that it had 
obtained from almost all pious persons such a favourable ac- 
ceptance as I never could have presumed to wish, much less 
to hope; while I was conscious of receiving far more attention 
than I had deserved, I thought it would evince great ingrat- 
itude, if I did not endeavour at least, according to my humble 
ability, to make some suitable return for the attentions paid to 
me —attentions of themselves calculated to stimulate my in- 
dustry. Nor did I attempt this only in the second edition ; 
but in every succeeding one the work has been improved by 
some further enlargements. But though I repented not the 
labour then devoted to it, yet I never satisfied myself, till it 
was arranged in the order in which it is now published ; and 
[ trust I have here presented to my readers what their judg- 
ments will unite in approving. Of my diligent application to 
the accomplishment of this service for the Church of God, I 
can produce abundant proof. For, last winter, when I thought 
that a quartan ague would speedily terminate in my death, the 
more my disorder increased, the less I spared myself, till I had 
finished this book, to leave it behind me, as some grateful re- 


VOL. 1. = 


18 AUTHOR’S PREFACE. 


turn to such kind solicitations of the religious public. Indeed, 
I would rather it had been done sooner ; but it is soon enough, 
if well enough. I shall think it has appeared at the proper 
time, when I shall find it to have been more beneficial than 
before to the Church of God. 'This is my only wish. 

I should indeed be ill requited for my labour, if I did not con- 
‘ent myself with the approbation of God alone, despising 
equally the foolish and perverse judgments of ignorant men, 
and the calumnies and detractions of the wicked. For though 
God hath wholly devoted my mind to study the enlargement 
of his kingdom, and the promotion of general usefulness; and 
[ have the testimony of my own conscience, of angels, and of 
God himself, that, since I undertook the office of a teacher in 
the Church, I have had no other object in view than to profit 
the Church by maintaining the pure doctrine of godliness; yet 
I suppose there is no man more slandered or calumniated than 
myself.. When this Preface was actually in the press, I had 
certain information, that at Augsburg, where the States of the 
Empire were assembled, a report had been circulated of my 
defection to popery, and received with unbecoming eager- 
ness in the courts of the princes. This is the gratitude of 
those who cannot be unacquainted with the numerous proofs 
of my constancy, which not only refute such a foul calumny, 
but, with all equitable and humane judges,-ought to preserve 
me from it. But the devil, with all his host, is deceived, if he 
think to overwhelm me with vile falsehoods, or to render me 
more timid, indolent, or dilatory, by such indignities. For I 
trust that God, in his infinite goodness, will enable me to per- 
severe with patient constancy in the career of his holy calling ; 
of which I afford my pious readers a fresh proof in this edition. 

Now, my design in this work has been to prepare and qualify 
students of theology for the reading of the divine word, that 
they may have an easy introduction to it, and be enabled to 
proceed in it without any obstruction. For I think I have 
given such a comprehensive summary, and orderly arrange- 
ment of all the branches of religion, that, with proper attention, 


AUTHOR’S PREFACE. 12 


no person will find any difficulty in determining what ought 
to be the principal objects of his research in the Scripture, and 
to what end he ought to refer any thing it contains. This 
way, therefore, being prepared, if I should hereafter publish 
any expositions of the Scripture, I shall have no need to in- 
troduce long discussions respecting doctrines, or digressions on 
common topics, and therefore shall always compress them 
within a narrow compass. This will relieve the pious reader 
from great trouble and tediousness, provided he come previous- 
ly furnished with the necessary information, by a knowledge 
of the present work. But as the reason of this design is very 
evident in my numerous Commentaries, I would rather have 
it known from the fact itself, than from my declaration. 

Farewell, friendly reader; and if you receive any benefit 
from my labours, let me have the assistance of your prayers 
with God our Father. 


Grveva, lst August, 1559. 


DEDICATION, 


To His Most Christian Majesty, Francis, King of the French, 
and his Sovereign, John Calvin wisheth peace and salvation 
in Christ. 


Wuen I began this work, Sire, nothing was further from my 
thoughts than writing a book which would afterwards be pre- 
sented to your Majesty. My intention was only to lay down 
some elementary principles, by which inquirers on the subject 
of religion might be instructed in the nature of true piety. 
And this labour I undertook chiefly for my countrymen, the 
French, of whom I apprehended multitudes to be hungering 
and thirsting after Christ, but saw very few possessing any 
real knowledge of him. That this was my design, the book 
itself proves by its simple method and unadorned composition. 
But when I perceived that the fury of certain wicked men in 
your kingdom had grown to such a height, as to leave no room 
in the land for sound doctrine, I thought I should be usefully 
employed, if in the same work I delivered my instructions to 
them, and exhibited my confession to you, that you may know 
the nature of that doctrine, which is the object of such un- 
bounded rage to those madmen who are now disturbing the 
country with fire and sword. For I shall not be afraid to ac- 
knowledge, that this treatise contains a summary of that very 
doctrine, which, according to their clamours, deserves to be 
punished with imprisonment, banishment, proscription, and 
flames, and to be exterminated from the face of the earth. I 
well know with what atrocious insinuations your ears have 
been filled by.them, in order to render our cause most odious 
in your esteem; but your clemency should lead you to con= 
sider that, if accusation be accounted a sufficient evidence of 
guilt, there will be an end of all innocence in words and ac- 
tions. If any one, indeed, with a view*to bring an odium 
upon the doctrine which I am endeavouring to defend, should 


DEDICATION. A | 


allege that it has long ago been condemned by the general 
consent, and suppressed by many judicial decisions, this will 
be only equivalent to saying, that it has been sometimes 
violently rejected through the influence and power of its ad- 
versaries, and sometimes insidiously and fraudulently op- 
pressed by falsehoods, artifices, and calumnies. Violence is 
displayed, when sanguinary sentences are passed against it 
without the cause being heard; and fraud, when it is un- 
justly accused of sedition and mischief. Lest any one should 
suppose that these our complaints are unfounded, you yourself, 
Sire, can bear witness of the false calumnies with which you 
hear it daily traduced; that its only tendency is to wrest the 
sceptres of kings out of their hands, to overturn all the tribu- 
nals and judicial proceedings, to subvert all order and govern- 
ments, to disturb the peace and tranquillity of the people, to 
abrogate all laws, to scatter all properties and possessions, and, 
in a word, to involve every thing in total confusion. And yet 
you hear the smallest portion of what is alleged against it; 
for such horrible things are circulated amongst the vulgar, that, 
if they were true, the whole world would justly pronounce it 
and its abettors worthy of a thousand fires and gibbets. Who, 
then, will wonder at its becoming the object of public odium, 
where credit is given to such most iniquitous accusations? 
This is the cause of the general consent and conspiracy to 
condemn us and our doctrine. Hurried away with this im- 
pulse, those who sit in judgment pronounce for sentences the 
prejudices they brought from home with them; and think 
their duty fully discharged if they condemn none to be pun- 
ished but such as are convicted by their own confession, or by 
sufficient proofs. Convicted of what crime? Of this con- 
demned doctrine, they say. But with what justice is it con- 
demned? Now, the ground of defence was not to abjure the 
doctrine itself, but to maintain its truth. On this subject, 
however, not a word is allowed to be uttered. 

Wherefore I beseech you, Sire, —and surely it is not an un- 
reasonable request, — to take upon yourself the entire cognizance 
of this cause, which has hitherto been confusedly and care- 
lessly agitated, without any order of law, and with outrageous 
passion rather than judicial gravity. Think not that I am 


DY) DEDICATION. 


now meditating my own individual defence, in order to effect 
a safe return to my native country; for, though I feel the af- 
fection which every man ought to feel for it, yet, under the 
existing circumstances, I regret not my removal from it. But 
I plead the cause of all the godly, and consequently of Christ 
himself, which, having been in these times persecuted and 
trampled on in all ways in your kingdom, now lies in a most 
deplorable state; and this indeed rather through the tyranny 
of certain Pharisees, than with your knowledge. How this 
comes to pass is foreign to my present purpose to say; but it 
certainly hes in a most afflicted state. For the ungodly have 
gone to such lengths, that the truth of Christ, if not van- 
quished, dissipated, and entirely destroyed, is buried, as it 
were, in ignoble obscurity, while the poor, despised church is 
either destroyed by cruel massacres, or driven away into ban- 
ishment, or menaced and terrified into total silence. And 
still they continue their wonted madness and ferocity, pushing 
violently against the wall already bent, and finishing the ruin 
they have begun. In the mean time, no one comes forward to 
plead the cause against such furies. If there be any persons 
desirous of appearing most favourable to the truth, they only 
venture an opinion, that forgiveness should be extended to the 
error and imprudence of ignorant people. For this is the lan- 
guage of these moderate men, calling that error and imprudence 
which they know to be the certain truth of God, and those ig- 
noraut people, whose understanding they perceive not to have 
been so despicable to Christ, but that he has favoured them 
with the mysteries of his heavenly wisdom. Thus all are 
ashamed of the Gospel. But it shall be yours, Sire, not to 
turn away your ears or thoughts from so just a defence, es- 
pecially in a cause of such importance as the maintenance of 
God’s glory unimpaired in the world, the preservation of the 
honour of divine truth, and the continuance of the kingdom of 
Christ uninjured among us. This is a cause worthy of your 
attention, worthy of your cognizance, worthy of your throne. 
This consideration constitutes true royalty, to acknowledge 
yourself in the government of your kingdom to be the minis- 
ter of God. For where the ‘glory of God is not made the end 
of the government, it is not a legitimate sovereignty, but a 


DEDICATION. elma 


usurpation. And he is deceived who expects lasting prosperity 
in that kingdom which is not ruled by the sceptre of God, that 
is, his holy word; for that heavenly oracle cannot fail, which 
declares that ‘‘ where there is no vision, the people perish.” (a) 
Nor should you be seduced from this pursuit by a contempt of 
our meanness. We are fully conscious to ourselves how very 
mean and abject we are, being miserable sinners before God, 
and accounted most despicable by men; being (if you please) 
the refuse of the world, deserving of the vilest appellations 
that can be found; so that nothing remains for us to glory in 
before God, but his mercy alone, by which, without any merit 
of ours, we have been admitted to the hope of eternal salva- 
tion, and before men nothing but our weakness, the slightest 
confession of which is esteemed by them as the greatest dis- _ 
grace. But our doctrine must stand, exalted above all the 
glory, and invincible by all the power of the world; because 
it is not ours, but the doctrine of the living God, and of his 
Christ, whom the Father hath constituted King, that he may 
have dominion from sea to sea, and from the river even to the 
ends of the earth, and that he may rule in such a manner, that 
the whole earth, with its strength of iron and with its splendour 
of gold and silver, smitten by the rod of his mouth, may be 
broken to pieces like a potter’s vessel;(b) for thus do the 
prophets foretell the magnificence of his kingdom. 

Our adversaries reply, that our pleading the word of God is 
a false pretence, and that we are nefarious corrupters of it. 
But that this is not only a malicious calumny, but egregious 
impudence, by reading our confession, you will, in your wis- 
dom, be able to judge. Yet something further is necessary to 
be said, to excite your attention, or at least to prepare your 
mind for this perusal. Paul’s direction, that every prophecy 
be framed “according to the analogy of faith,” (c) has fixed an 
invariable standard by which all interpretation of Scripture 
ought to be tried. If our principles be examined by this rule 
of faith, the victory is ours. For what is more consistent with 
faith than to acknowledge ourselves naked of all virtue, that 
we may be clothed by God; empty of all good, that we may 


(a) Prov xxix. 18. (b) Dan. ii. 34. Isaiah xi. 4. Psalm ii. 9. 
(c) Rom. xii. 6. 


QA, DEDICATION. 


be filled by him; slaves to sin, that we may be liberated by 
him; blind, that we may be enlightened by him; lame, that 
we may; be guided; weak, that we may be supported by him; 
to divest ourselves of all ground of glorying, that he alone may 
ne eminently glorious, and that we may glory in him? When 
we advance these and similar sentiments, they interrupt us 
with complaints that this is the way to overturn, I know not 
what blind hght of nature, pretended preparations, free will, 
and works meritorious of eternal salvation, together with all 
their supererogations ; because they cannot bear that the praise 
and glory of all goodness, strength, righteousness, and wisdom, 
should remain entirely with God. But we read of none being 
reproved for having drawn too freely from the fountain of 
living waters; on the contrary, they are severely upbraided 
who have ‘‘hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can 
hold no water.” (d) Again, what is more consistent with 
faith, than to assure ourselves of God being a propitious Fa- 
ther, where Christ is acknowledged as a brother and Mediator ? 
than securely to expect all prosperity and happiness from Him, 
whose unspeakable love towards us went so far, that “he 
spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us?” (e) 
than to rest in the certain expectation of salvation and eternal 
life, when we reflect upon the Father’s gift of Christ, in whom 
such treasures are hidden? Here they oppose us, and com- 
plain that this certainty of confidence is chargeable with arro- 
gance and presumption. But as we ought to presume nothing 
of ourselves, so we should presume every thing of God; nor 
are we divested of vain glory for any other reason than that 
we may learn to glory in the Lord. What shall I say more? 
Review, Sire, all the parts of our cause, and consider us worse 
than the most abandoned of mankind, unless you clearly dis- 
cover that we thus “both labour and suffer reproach, because 
we trust in the living God,” (f) because we believe that “ this 
is life eternal, to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ 
whom he hath sent.” (g) For this hope some of us are bound 
in chains, others are lashed with scourges, others are carried 
about as laughing-stocks, others are outlawed, others are cruelly 


(d) Jer ii 13 (e) Rom. viii. 32. (f) 1 Tim. iv. 10. 
(g) John xvii. 3. 


DEDICATION. 25 


‘tortured, others escape by flight; but we are all reduced to 
extreme perplexities, execrated with dreadful curses, cruelly 
slandered and treated with the greatest indignities.. Now, 
look at our adversaries, (I speak of the order of priests, at 
whose will and directions others carry on these hostilities 
against us,) and consider a little with me by what principles 
they are actuated. The true religion, which is taught in the 
Scriptures, and ought to be universally maintained, they readily 
permit both themselves and others to be ignorant of, and to 
treat with neglect and contempt. They think it unimportant 
what any one holds or denies concerning God and Christ, pro- 
vided he submits his mind with an implicit faith (as they call 
it) to the judgment of the Church. Nor are they much af- 
fected, if the glory of God happens to be violated with open 
blasphemies, provided no one lift a finger against the primacy 
of the Apostolic See, and the authority of their holy Mother 
Church. Why, therefore, do they contend with such extreme 
bitterness and cruelty for the mass, purgatory, pilgrimages, and 
similar trifles, and deny that any piety can be maintained with- 
out a most explicit faith, so to speak, in these things; whereas 
they prove none of them from the Word of God? Why, but 
because their belly is their god, their kitchen is their religion ; 
deprived of which they consider themselves no longer as 
Christians, or even as men. For though some feast themselves 
in splendour, and others subsist on slender fare, yet all live on 
the same pot, which, without this fuel, would not only cool, 
but completely freeze. Every one of them, therefore, who is 
most solicitous for his belly, is found to be a most strenuous 
champion for their faith. Indeed, they universally exert them- 
selves for the preservation of their kingdom, and the repletion 
of their bellies ; but not one of them discovers the least indi- 
cation of sincere zeal. 

Nor do their attacks on our doctrine cease here; they urge 
every topic of accusation and abuse to render it an object of 
hatred or suspicion. They call it novel, and of recent origin, 
—they cavil at it as doubtful and uncertain, —they inquire 
by what miracles it is confirmed,—they ask whether it is 
right for it to be received contrary to the consent of so many 
holy fathers, and the custom of the highest antiquity, — they 

VOL. 1. 4 


26 DEDICATION. 


urge us to confess that it is schismatical in stirring up opposi 
tion against the Church, or that the Church was wholly extinet 
for many ages, during which no such thing was known. — 
Lastly, they say all arguments are unnecessary; for that its 
nature may be determined by its fruits, since it has producea 
such a multitude of sects, so many factious tumults, and such 
great licentiousness of vices. It is indeed very easy for them 
to insult a deserted cause with the credulous and .gnorant mul- 
titude ; but, if we had also the liberty of speaking in our turn, 
this acrimony, which they now discover in violently foaming 
- against us with equal licentiousness and impunity, would pres- 
ently cool. 

In the first place, their calling it novel is highly injurious to 
God, whose holy word deserves not to be accused of novelty. 
I-have no doubt of its being new to them, to whom Jesus 
Christ and the Gospel are equally new. But those who know 
the antiquity of this preaching of Paul, ‘that Jesus Christ died 
for our sins, and rose again for our justification,” (4) will find 
no novelty among us. ‘That it has long been concealed, buried, 
and unknown, is the crime of human impiety. Now that the 
goodness of God has restored it to us, it ought at least to be 
allowed its just claim of antiquity. 

F'rom the same source of ignorance springs the notion of its 
being doubtful and uncertain. ‘This is the very thing which 
the Lord complains of by his prophet; that “the ox knoweth 
his owner, and the ass his master’s crib,” (7) but that his people 
know not him. But however they may laugh at its uncer- 
tainty, if they were called to seal their own doctrine with 
their blood and lives, it would appear how much they value it. 
Very different is our confidence, which dreads neither the ter- 
rors of death, nor even the tribunal of God. 

Their requiring miracles of us is altogether unreasgnable ; 
for we forge no new Gospel, but retain the very same whose 
truth was confirmed by all the miracles ever wrought by Christ 
and the apostles. But they have this peculiar advantage above 
us, that they can confirm their faith by continual miracles even 
to this day. But the truth is, they allege miracles which are 
“alculated to unsettle a mind otherwise well established, they 


(hk) Rom. iv. 25. 1 Cor. xv. 3, 17. (i) Isaiah i. 3. 


DEDICATION. in | 


are so frivolous and ridiculous, or vain and false. Nor, if they 
were ever so preternatural, ought they to have any weight in 
opposition to the truth of God, since the name of God ought 
to be sanctified in all places and at all times, whether by mirac- 
ulous events, or by the common order of nature. This fallacy 
might perhaps be more specious, if the Scripture did not apprize 
us of the legitimate end and use of miracles. For Mark informs 
us, that the miracles which followed the preaching of the apos- 
tles were wrought in confirmation (/) of it, and Luke tells us, 
that (/) ‘“‘the Lord gave testimony to the word of his grace,” 
when “signs and wonders” were ‘‘done by the hands” of the 
apostles. Very similar to which is the assertion of the apostle, 
that “salvation was confirmed ’’ by the preaching of the Gos- 
pel, ‘‘God also bearing witness with signs, and wonders, and 
divers miracles.” (m) But those things which we are told 
were seals of the Gospel, shall we pervert to undermine the 
faith of the Gospel? 'Those things which were designed to be 
testimonials of the truth, shall we accommodate to the con- 
firmation of falsehood? It is right, therefore, that the doctrine, 
which, according to the evangelist, claims the first attention, 
be examined and tried in the first place ; and if it be approved, 
then it ought to derive confirmation from miracles. But it is 
the characteristic of sound doctrine, given by Christ, that it 
tends to promote, not the glory of men, but the glory of God. (7) 
Christ having laid down this proof of a doctrine, it is wrong to 
esteem those as miracles which are directed to any other end 
than the glorification of the name of God alone. And we 
should remember that Satan has his wonders, which, though 
they are juggling tricks rather than real miracles, are such as 
to delude the ignorant and inexperienced. Magicians and en- 
chanters have always been famous for miracles; idolatry has 
been supported by astonishing miracles; and yet we admit them 
“not as proofs of the superstition of magicians or idolaters. With 
this engine also the simplicity of the vulgar was anciently as- 
sailed by the Donatists, who abounded in miracles. We there- 
fore give the same answer now to our adversaries as Augus- 
tine (0) gave to the Donatists, that our Lord hath cautioned us 
against these miracle-mongers by his prediction, that there 


(k) Mark xvi. 20. _ () Acts xiv. 3. (m) Heb. ii. 3, 4. 
(n) John vii. 18. viii. 50. (0) In Joan, tract. 13. 


28 DEDICATION. 


should arise false prophets, who, by various signs and lying 
wonders, ‘“‘should deceive (if possible) the very elect.” (p) 
And Paul has told us, that the kingdom of Antichrist would 
be “with all power, and signs, and lying wonders.” (gq) But 
these miracles (they say) are wrought, not by idols, or sor- 
cerers, or false prophets, but by saints; as if we were ignorant, 
that it isa stratagem of Satan to “ transform ”’ himself ‘into an 
angel of light.” (r) At the tomb of Jeremiah, (s) who was 
buried in Egypt, the Egyptians formerly offered sacrifices and 
other divine honours. Was not this abusing God’s holy prophet 
to the purposes of idolatry? Yet they supposed this venera- 
tion of his sepulchre to be rewarded with a cure for the bite of 
serpents. What shall we say, but that it has been, and ever 
will be, the most righteous vengeance of God to “send those 
who receive not the love of the truth strong delusions, that 
they should believe a lie”? (t) Weare by no means without 
miracles, and such as are certain, and not liable to cavils. But 
those under which they shelter themselves are mere illusions 
of Satan, seducing the people from the true worship of God to 
vanity. 

Another calumny is their charging us with opposition to the 
fathers, —I mean the writers of the earlier and purer ages, —as 
if those writers were abettors of their impiety ; whereas, if the 
contest were to be terminated by this authority, the victory im 
most parts of the controversy —to speak in the most modest 
terms — would be on our side. But though the writings of those 
fathers contain many wise and excellent things, yet m some 
respects they have suffered the common fate of mankind; these 
very dutiful children reverence only their errors and mistakes, 
but their excellences they either overlook, or conceal, or cor- 
rupt ; so that it may be truly said to be their only study to 
collect dross from the midst of gold. Then they overwhelm 
us with senseless clamours, as despisers and enemies of the 
fathers. But we do not hold them in such contempt, but that, 
if it were consistent with my present design, I could easily 
support by their suffrages most of the sentiments that we now 
maintain. But while we make use of their writings, we always 
remember that ‘all things are ours,” to serve us, not to have 


(p) Matt. xxiv. 24. (q) 2 Thess. ii. 9. (r) 2 Cor. xi. 14. 
(s) Hierom. in pref. Jerem. (t) 2 Thess, ii. 10, 11. 


DEDICATION. 29 


dominion over us, and that “we are Christ’s” (v) alone, and 
owe him universal obedience. He who neglects this distinction 
will have nothing decided in religion; since those holy men 
were ignorant of many things, frequently at variance with 
each other, and sometimes even inconsistent with themselves. 
There is great reason, they say, for the admonition of Solomon, 
‘not to transgress or remove the ancient landmarks, which our 
fathers have set.” (w) But the same rule is not applicable to 
the bounding of fields, and to the obedience of faith, which 
ought to be ready to ‘‘forget her own people and her father’s 
house.” (z) But if they are so fond of allegorizing, why do 
they not explain the apostles, rather than any others, to be 
those fathers, whose appointed landmarks it is so unlawful to 
remove? [for this is the interpretation of Jerome, whose works 
they have received into their canons. But if they insist on 
preserving the landmarks of those whom they understand to be 
intended, why do they at pleasure so freely transgress them 
themselves? 'There were two fathers, (y) of whom one said, 
that our God neither eats nor drinks, and therefore needs nei- 
ther cups nor dishes; the other, that sacred things require no 
gold, and that gold is no recommendation of that which is not 
purchased with gold. This landmark therefore is transgressed 
by those who in sacred things are so much delighted with gold, 
silver, ivory, marble, jewels, and silks, and suppose that God 
is not rightly worshipped, unless all things abound in exqui- 
site splendour, or rather extravagant profusion. ‘There was a 
father (z) who said he freely partook of flesh on a day when 
others abstained from it, because he was a Christian. They 
transgress the landmarks therefore when they curse the soul 
that tastes flesh in Lent. There were two fathers, (a) of whom 
one said, that a monk who labours not with his hands is on a 
levél with a cheat or a robber; and the other, that it is unlaw- 
ful for monks to live on what is not their own, notwithstanding 
their assiduity in contemplations, studies, and prayers; and 
they have transgressed this landmark by placing the idle and 
distended carcasses of monks in cells and brothels, to be pam- 
(v) 1 Cor. iii. 21, 23. (w) Prov. xxii. 28. (x) Psalm xlvy. 10 
(y) Acat. in lib. 11. cap. 16. Trip. Hist. Amb. lib. 2, de Off. c. 28 


(z) Spiridion. Trip. Hist. lib. 1. c. 10. 
(a) Trip. Hist. lib 8, c.1. August. de Opere Mon. c. 17. 


30 DEDICATION. 


pered on the substance of others. There was a father (b) who 
said, that to see a painted image of Christ, or of any saint, in 
the temples of Christians, is a dreadful abomination. Nor was 
this merely the sentence of an individual; it was also decreed 
by an ecclesiastical council, that the object of worship should 
not be painted on the walls. ‘They are far from confining 
themselves within these landmarks, for every corner is filled 
with images. Another father (c) has advised that, after having 
discharged the office of humanity towards the dead by the rites 
of sepulture, we should leave them to their repose. ‘They break 
through these landmarks by inculcating a constant solicitude 
for the dead. There was one of the fathers (d) who asserted 
that the substance of bread and wine in the eucharist ceases 
not, but remains, just as the substance of the human nature re- 
mains in the Lord Christ united with the divine. ‘They trans- 
gress this landmark therefore by pretending that, on the words. 
of the Lord being recited, the substance of bread and wine 
ceases, and is transubstantiated into his body and_ blood. 
There were fathers (e) who, while they exhibited to the uni- 
versal Church only one eucharist, and forbade all scandalous 
and immoral persons to approach it, at the same time severely 
censured all who, when present, did not partake of it. How far 
have they removed these landmarks, when they fill not only 
the churches, but even private houses, with their masses, admit 
all who choose to be spectators of them, and every one the more 
readily in proportion to the magnitude of his contribution, how- 
ever chargeable with impurity and wickedness! They invite 
none to faith in Christ and a faithful participation of the sacra- 
ments; but rather for purposes of gain bring forward their own 
work instead of the grace and merit of Christ. ‘There were 
two fathers, () of whom one contended that the use of Christ’s 
sacred supper should be wholly forbidden to those who, content 
with partaking of one kind, abstained from the other; the other 
strenuously maintained that Christian people ought not to be 
refused the blood of their Lord, for the confession of whom 
they are required to shed their own. ‘These landmarks also 
(b) Epiph. Epist. ab. Hier. vers. Con. Eliber. c. 36. (c) Amb. de Abra. lib. 1. c.7. 
(d) Gelas. Pap. in Conc. Rom. 


(e) Chrys. in 1 Cap. Ephes. Calix. Papa de Cons. dist. 2. 
(f) Gelas. can. Comperimus de Cons. dist. 2. Cypr. Epist. 2. lib. 1, de Laps. 


DEDICATION. 31 


they have removed, in appointing, by an inviolable law, that 
very thing which the former punished with excommunication, — 
and the latter gave a powerful reason for disapproving. ‘There 
was a father (g) who asserted the temerity of deciding on either 
side of an obscure subject, without clear and evident testimonies 
of Scripture. This landmark they forgot when they made so 
many constitutions, canons, and judicial determinations, with- 
out any authority from the word of God. 'There was a fa- 
ther (i) who upbraided Montanus with having, among other 
heresies, been the first imposer of laws for the observance of 
fasts. They have gone far beyond this landmark also, in es- 
tablishing fasts by the strictest laws. There was a father (7) 
who denied that marriage ought to be forbidden to the minis- 
ters of the Church, and pronounced cohabitation with a wife to 
be real chastity ; and there were fathers who assented to his 
judgment. ‘They have transgressed these landmarks by en- 
joining on their priests the strictest celibacy. There was a fa- 
ther who thought that attention should be paid to Christ only, 
of whom it is said, ‘‘ Hear ye him,” and that no regard should 
be had to what others before us have either said or done, only 
to what has been commanded by Christ, who is preéminent 
over all. This landmark they neither prescribe to themselves, 
nor permit to be observed by others, when they set up over 
themselves and others any masters rather than Christ. There 
was a father (kK) who contended that the Church ought not to 
take the precedence of Christ, because his judgment is always 
according to truth; but ecclesiastical judges, like other men, 
may generally be deceived. Breaking down this landmark 
also, they scruple not to assert, that all the authority of the 
Scripture depends on the decision of the: Church. All the fa- 
thers, with one heart and voice, have declared it execrable 
and detestable for the holy word of God to be contaminated 
with the subtleties of sophists, and perplexed by the wrangles 
of logicians. Do they confine themselves within these land- 
marks, when the whole business of their lives is to involve the 
simplicity of the Scripture in endless controversies, and worse 
(g) August. lib. 2. de Pec. Mer. cap. ult. 
. (kh) Apollon. de quo Eccl. Hist. lib. 5. cap. 11, 12. 


(¢) Paphnut. Trip. Hist. lib. 2. c. 14. Cypr. Epist. 2. lib. 2. 
(k) Aug. cap. 2. contr. Cresc. Grammatic. 


— 82 DEDICATION. 


than sophistical wrangles? so that if the fathers were now 
restored to life, and heard this art of wrangling, which they 
call speculative divinity, they would not suspect the dispute to 
have the least reference to God. But if I would enumerate all 
the instances in which the authority of the fathers is insolently 
rejected by those who would be thought their dutiful children, 
my address would exceed all reasonable bounds. Months and 
years would be insufficient for me. And yet such is their con- 
summate and incorrigible impudence, they dare to censure us 
for presuming to transgress the ancient landmarks. 

Nor can they gain any advantage against us by their argu- 
ment from custom; for, if we were compelled to submit to cus- 
tom, we should have to complain of the greatest injustice. 
Indeed, if the judgments of men were correct, custom should 
be sought among the good. But the fact is often very different. 
What appears to be practised by many soon obtains the force 
of a custom. And human affairs have scarcely ever been in so 
good a state as for the majority to be pleased with things of 
real excellence. From the private vices of multitudes, there- 
fore, has arisen public error, or rather a common agreement of 
vices, which these good men would now have to be received 
as law. It is evident to all who can see, that the world is in- 
undated with more than an ocean of evils, that it.is overrun 
with numerous destructive pests, that every thing is fast ver- 
ging to ruin, so that we must altogether despair of human 
affairs, or vigorously and even violently oppose such immense 
evils. And the remedy is rejected for no other reason, but 
because we have been accustomed to the evils so long. But 
let public error be tolerated in human society; in the king- 
dom of God nothing but his eternal truth should be heard and 
regarded, which no succession of years, no custom, no con- 
federacy, can circumseribe. Thus Isaiah once taught the 
chosen people of God: ‘Say ye not, A confederacy, to all to 
whom this people shall say, A confederacy;’ that is, that 
they should not unite in the wicked consent of the people; 
“nor fear their fear, nor be afraid,” but rather “ sanctify the 
Lord of hosts,’’ that he might ‘be their fear and their dread.” (2) 
Now, therefore, let them, if they please, object against us past 
ages and present examples; if we “sanctify the Lord of hosts,” 


(Z) Isaiah viii. 12, 13. 


DEDICATION. 33 


we shall not be much afraid. For, whether many ages agree 
in similar impiety, he is mighty to take vengeance on the third 
and fourth generation ; or whether the whole world combine in 
the same iniquity, he has given an example of the fatal end of 
those who sin with a multitude, by destroying all men witha 
deluge, and preserving Noah and his small family, in order that 
his individual faith might condemn the whole world. Lastly, 
a corrupt custom is nothing but an epidemical pestilence, which 
is equally fatal to its objects, though they fall with a multitude. 
Besides, they ought to consider a remark, somewhere made by 
Cyprian, (m) that persons who sin through ignorance, though 
they cannot be wholly exculpated, may yet be considered in 
some degree excusable ; but those who obstinately reject the 
truth offered by the Divine goodness, are without any excuse 
at all. 

Nor are we so embarrassed by their dilemma as to be obliged 
to confess, either that the Church was for some time extinct, 
or that we have now a controversy with the Church. ‘The 
_ Church of Christ has lived, and will continue to live, as long 
as Christ shall reign at the right hand of the Father, by whose 
hand she is sustained, by whose protection she is defended, by 
whose power she is preserved in safety. For he will undoubt- 
edly perform what he once promised, to be with his people 
“even to the end of the world.” (7) We have no quarrel 
against the Church, for with one consent we unite with all the 
company of the faithful in worshipping and adoring the one 
God and Christ the Lord, as he has been adored by all the pious 
inall ages. But our opponents deviate widely from the truth 
when they acknowledge no Church but what is visible to the 
corporeal eye, and endeavour to circumscribe it by those limits 
within which it is far from being included. Our controversy 
turns on the two following points : — first, they contend that the 
form of the Church is always apparent and visible; secondly, 
they place that form in the see of the Roman Church and her 
order of prelates. We assert, on the contrary, first, that the 
Church may exist without any visible form; secondly, that its 
form is not contained in that external splendour which they fool- 


(m) Epist. 3. lib. 2. et in Epist. ad Julian. de Heret. baptiz. 
(n) Matt xxviii. 20. 
VOL. I. 5 


3A DEDICATION. 


ishly admire, but is distinguished by a very different criterion, 
viz. the pure preaching of God’s word, and the legitimate ad- 
ministration of the sacraments. They are not satisfied unless the 
Church can always be pointed out with the finger. But how 
often among the Jewish people was it so disorganized, as to 
have no visible form left? What splendid form do we suppose 
could be seen, when Elias deplored his being left alone? (a) 
How long, after the coming of Christ, did it remain without 
any external form? How often, since that time, have wars, 
seditions, and heresies, oppressed and totally obscured it? If 
they had lived at that period, would they have believed that 
any Church existed? Yet Elias was informed that there 
were “left seven thousand’? who had “not bowed the knee 
to Baal.” Nor should we entertain any doubt of Christ’s 
having always reigned on earth ever since his ascension to 
heaven. But if the pious at such periods had sought for any 
form evident to their senses, must not their hearts have been 
quite discouraged? Indeed it was already considered by Hilary 
in his day as a grievous error, that people were absorbed in 
foolish admiration of the episcopal dignity, and did not per- 
ceive the dreadful mischiefs concealed under that disguise. 
For this is his language : (p) “‘One thing I advise you — beware 
of Antichrist, for you have an improper attachment to walls; 
your veneration for the Church of God is misplaced on houses 
and buildings; you wrongly introduce under them the name 
of peace. Is there any doubt that they will be seats of Anti- 
christ?) I think mountains, woods, and lakes, prisons and 
whirlpools, less dangerous ; for these were the scenes of retire- 
ment or banishment in which the prophets prophesied.” But 
what excites the veneration of the multitude in the present day 
for their horned bishops, but the supposition that those are the 
holy prelates of religion whom they see presiding over great 
cities? Away, then, with such stupid admiration. Let us 
rather leave it to the Lord, since he alone “‘ knoweth them 
that are his,” (gq) sometimes to remove from human observa- - 
tion all external knowledge of his Church. I admit this to be 
a dreadful judgment of God on the earth; but if it be deserved 
by the impiety of men, why do we attempt to resist the right- 
eous vengeance of God? ‘Thus the Lord punished the ingrati- 


(0) 1 Kings xix. 14, 18. (p) Contr. Auxent. (q) 2 Tim. 1i. 19. 


DEDICATION. 35 


tude of men in former ages; for, in consequence of their resist- 
ance to his truth, and extinction of the light he had given 
them, he permitted them to be blinded by sense, deluded by 
absurd falsehoods, and immerged in profound darkness, so that 
there was no appearance of the true Church left ; yet, at the same 
time, in the midst of darkness and errors, he preserved his scat- 
tered and concealed people from total destruction. Nor is this 
to be wondered at; for he knew how to save in all the con- 
fusion of Babylon, and the flame of the fiery furnace. But how 
dangerous it is to estimate the form of the Church by I know 
not what vain pomp, which they contend for; I shall rather 
briefly suggest than state at large, lest I should protract this 
discourse to an excessive length. The Pope, they say, who 
holds the Apostolic see, and the bishops anointed and conse- 
crated by him, provided they are equipped with mitres and 
crosiers, represent the Church, and ought to be considered as 
the Church. Therefore they cannot err. How is this? — 
Because they are pastors of the Church, and consecrated to the 
Lord. And did not the pastoral character belong to Aaron, 
and the other rulers of Israel? Yet Aaron and his sons, after 
their designation to the priesthood, fell into error when they 
made the golden calf. (7) According to this mode of reason- 
ing, why should not the four hundred prophets, who lied to Ahab, 
have represented the Church?(s) But the Church remained 
on the side of Micaiah, solitary and despised as he was, and 
out of his mouth proceeded the truth. Did not those prophets 
exhibit both the name and appearance of the Church, who 
with united violence rose up against Jeremiah, and threatened 
and boasted, “the law shall not perish from the priest, nor 
counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet” ? (¢) 
Jeremiah is sent singly against the whole multitude of prophets, 
with a denunciation from the Lord, that the “law shall perish 
from the priest, counsel from the wise, and the word from the 
prophet.’”’(v) And was there not the like external respecta- 
bility in the council convened by the chief priests, scribes, and 
Pharisees, to consult about putting Christ to death? (w) Now, 
let them go and adhere to the external appearance, and thereby 
make Christ and all the prophets schismatics, and, on the other 


(r) Exod. xxxii. 4, (s) 1 Kings xxii. 6, 11—23. (t) Jer. xviii. 18. 
(v) Jer. iv. 9. (w) Matt. xxvi. 3, 4, 


36 DEDICATION. 


hand, make the ministers of Satan instruments of the Holy 
Spirit. But if they speak their real sentiments, let them 
answer me sincerely, what nation or place they consider as the 
seat of the Church, from the time when, by a decree of the 
council of Basil, Eugenius was deposed and degraded from the 
pontificate, and Amadeus substituted in his place. “They can- 
not deny that the council, as far as relates to external forms, 
was a lawful one, and summoned not only by one pope, but by 
two. There Eugenius was pronounced guilty of schism, re- 
bellion, and obstinacy, together with all the host of cardinals 
and bishops who had joined him in attempting a dissolution 
of the council. Yet afterwards, assisted by the favour of 
princes, he regained the quiet possession of his former dignity. 
That election of Amadeus, though formally made by the au- 
thority of a general and holy synod, vanished into smoke ; and 
he was appeased with a cardinal’s hat, like a barking dog with 
a morsel. From the bosom of those heretics and rebels have 
proceeded all the popes, cardinals, bishops, abbots, and priests, 
ever since. Here they must stop. For to which party will 
they give the title of the Church? Will they deny that this 
was a general council, which wanted nothing to complete its 
external majesty, being solemnly convened by two papal bulls, 
consecrated by a presiding legate of the Roman see, and well 
regulated in every point of order, and invariably preserving the 
same dignity to the last? Will they acknowledge Eugenius 
to be a schismatic, with all his adherents, by whom they. have 
all been consecrated? Either, therefore, let them give a differ- 
ent definition of the form of the Church, or, whatever be their 
number, we shall account them all schismatics, as having been 
knowingly and voluntarily ordained by heretics. But if it had 
never been ascertained before, that the Church is not confined 
to external pomps, they would themselves afford us abundant 
proof of it, who have so long superciliously exhibited them- 
selves to the world under the title of the Church, though they 
were at the same time the deadly plagues of it. I speak not 
of their morals, and those tragical exploits with which all their 
_ lives abound, since they profess themselves to be. Pharisees, 
who are to be heard and not imitated. Irefer to the very doc- 
trine itself, on which they found their claim to be considered 
as the Church. If you devote a portion of your leisure, Sire, 


DEDICATION. 37 


to the perusal of our writings, you will clearly discover that 
doctrine to be a fatal pestilence of souls, the firebrand, ruin, 
and destruction of the Church. | 

Finally, they betray great want of candour, by invidiously 
repeating what great commotions, tumults, and contentions, 
have attended the preaching of our doctrine, and what effects 
it produces in many persons. For it is unfair to charge it with 
those evils which ought to be attributed to the malice of Satan. 
It is the native property of the Divine word, never to make its 
appearance without disturbing Satan, and rousing his opposi- 
tion. ‘This is the most certain and unequivocal criterion -by 
which it is distinguished from false doctrines, which are easily 
broached when they are heard with general attention, and re- 
ceived with applauses by the world. ‘Thus, in some ages, 
when all things were immerged in profound darkness, the 
prince of this world amused and diverted himself with the 
generality of mankind, and, like another Sardanapalus, gave 
himself up to his ease and pleasures in perfect peace ; for what 
would he do but amuse and divert himself, in the quiet and 
undisturbed possession of his kingdom? But when the light 
shining from above dissipated a portion of his darkness — when 
that Mighty One alarmed and assaulted his kingdom — then he 
began to shake off his wonted torpor, and to hurry on his 
armour. First, indeed, he stirred up the power of men to sup- 
press the truth by violence at its first appearance; and when 
this proved ineffectual, he had recourse to subtlety. He made 
the Catabaptists, and other infamous characters, the instru- 
ments of exciting dissensions and doctrinal controversies, with 
a view to obscure and finally to extinguish it. And now he 
continues to attack it in both ways; for he endeavours to root up 
this genuine seed by means of human force, and at the same 
time tries every effort to choke it with his tares, that it may 
not grow and produce fruit. But all his attempts will be vain, 
if we attend to the admonitions of the Lord, who hath long 
ago made us acquainted with his devices, that we might not 
be caught by him unawares, and has armed us with sufficient 
means of defence against all his assaults. But to charge the 
word of God with the odium of seditions, excited against it by 
wicked and rebellious men, or of sects raised by impostors, —1s 
not this extreme malignity? Yet it is not without example in 


38 DEDICATION. 


former times. Elias was asked whether it was not he “thet 
troubled Israel.” (x) Christ was represented by the Jews as 
guilty of sedition. (y) ‘The apostles were accused of stirring 
up popular commotions.(z) Wherein does this differ from 
the conduct of those who, at the present day, impute to us all 
the disturbances, tumults, and contentions, that break out 
against us? But the proper answer to such accusations has 
been taught us by Elias, that the dissemination of errors and 
the raising of tumults is not chargeable on us, but on those 
who are resisting the power of God. But as this one reply 
is sufficient to repress their temerity, so, on the other hand, we 
must meet the weakness of some persons, who are frequently 
disturbed with such offences, and become unsettled and waver- 
ing in their minds. Now, that they may not stumble and fali 
amidst this agitation and perplexity, let them know that the 
apostles in their day experienced the same things that now be- 
fall us. There were ‘unlearned and unstable” men, Pete 
says, who “wrested” the inspired writings of Paul “to their 
own destruction.” (a) There were despisers of God, who, 
when they heard that “where sin abounded grace did much 
more abound,” immediately concluded, Let us “continue in 
sin, that grace may abound.” When they heard that the 
faithful were “not under the law,” they immediately croaked, 
“We will sin, because we are not under the law, but under 
grace.” (b) There were some who accused him as an en- 
courager of sin. Many false apostles crept in, to destroy the 
churches he had raised. “Some preached” the: gospel “ of 
envy and strife, not in sincerity,’’ maliciously ‘‘ supposing to 
add affliction to his bonds.” (c) In some places the Gospel 
was attended with little benefit. “All were seeking their 
own, not the things of Jesus Christ.” (d) Others returned 
“like dogs to their vomit, and like swine to their wallowing 
in the mire.” (e) Many perverted the liberty of the spirit into 
the licentiousness of the flesh. Many insinuated themselves 
as brethren, who afterwards brought the pious into dangers. 
Various contentions were excited among the brethren them- 
selves. What was to be done by the apostles in such cireum- 
stances? Should they not have dissembled for a time, or 
(x) 1 Kings xviii. 17. (y) Luke xxiii. 2, 5. (z) Acts xvil. 6. xxiv. 5. 


(a) 2 Pet. iii. 16. (6) Rom. v. 20. vi. 1, 14,15. (ce) Phil. i. 15, 16. 
(d) Phil. ii. 21. " (ec) 2 Pet. ii. 22. 


DEDICATION. 39 


rather have rejected and deserted that Gospel which appeared 
to be the nursery of so many disputes, the cause of so many © 
dangers, the occasion of so many offences? But in such dif- 
ficulties as these, their minds were relieved by this reflection 
that Christ is the “stone of stumbling and rock of offence,” (/) 
“set for the fall and rising again of many, and for a sign 
which shall be spoken against ;” (¢) and armed with this con- 
fidence, they proceeded boldly through all the dangers of 
tumults and offences. The same consideration should support 
us, since Paul declares it to be the perpetual character of the 
Gospel, that it is ‘a savour of death unto death in them that 
perish,” (i) although it was rather given us to be the ‘ savour 
of life unto life,” and “the power of God to” the “salvation ” 
of the faithful ; (7) which we also should certainly experience 
it to be, if we did not corrupt this eminent gift of God by our 
ingratitude, and pervert to our destruction what ought to be a 
principal instrument of our salvation. 

But I return to you, Sire. Let not your Majesty be at all 
moved by those groundless accusations with which our ad- 
versaries endeavour to terrify you; as that the sole tendency 
and design of this new Gospel — for so they call it — is to furnish 
a pretext for seditions, and to gain impunity for all crimes. 
For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace;” (k) 
nor is ‘the Son of God,’ who came to ‘destroy the works 
of the devil, the minister of sin.” (/) And it is unjust to 
charge us with such motives and designs, of which we have 
never given cause for the least suspicion. Is it probable that 
we are meditating the subversion of kingdoms?—we, who 
were never heard to utter a factious word, whose lives were 
ever known to be peaceable and honest while we lived under 
your government, and who, even now in our exile, cease not to 
pray for all prosperity to attend yourself and your kingdom! 
Is it probable that we are seeking an unlimited license to com- 
mit erimes with impunity? in whose conduct, though many 
things may be blamed, yet there is nothing worthy of such 
severe reproach! Nor have we, by Divine Grace, profited so 
little in the Gospel, but that our life may be an example to our 
detractors of chastity, liberality, mercy, temperance, patience, 


(7) 1 Pet. 11. 8. (h) 2 Cor. ii. 15, 16. (k) 1 Cor, xiv. 33. 
(g) Luke i. 34. (t) Rom. i. 16. (1) 1 John iii. 8. Gal. ii. 17 


40 DEDICATION, 


modesty, and every other virtue. Jt is an undeniable fact, 
that we sincerely fear and worship God, whose name we de- 
sire to be sanctified both by our life and by our death; and 
envy itself is constrained to bear testimony to the innocence 
and civil integrity of some of us, who have suffered the pun- 
ishment of death for that very thing which ought to be ac- 
counted their highest praise. But if the Gospel be made a 
pretext for tumults, which has not yet happened in your king- 
dom; if any persons make the liberty of divine grace an ex- 
cuse for the lcentiousness of their vices, of whom I have 
known many, —there are laws and legal penalties, by which 
they may be punished according to their deserts; only let not 
the Gospel of God be reproached for the crimes of wicked 
men. You have now, Sire, the virulent iniquity of our ca- 
Jumniators laid before you in a sufficient number of instances, 
that you may not receive their accusations with too credulous 
an ear. —TI fear I have gone too much into the detail, as this 
preface already approaches the size of a full apology ; whereas 
I intended it not to contain our defence, but only to prepare 
your mind to attend to the pleading of our cause; for, though 
you are now averse and alienated from us, and even inflamed 
against us, we despair not of regaining your favour, if you will 
only once read with calmness and composure this our confes- 
sion, which we intend as our defence before your Majesty. 
But, on the contrary, if your ears are so preoccupied with the 
whispers of the malevolent, as to leave no opportunity for the 
accused to speak for themselves, and if those outrageous furies, 
with your connivance, continue to persecute with imprison- 
ments, scourges, tortures, confiscations, and flames, we shall 
indeed, like sheep destined to the slaughter, be reduced to the 
greatest extremities. Yet shall we in patience possess our 
souls, and wait for the mighty hand of the Lord, which un- 
doubtedly will in time appear, and show itself armed for the 
deliverance of the poor from their affliction, and for the pun- 
ishment of their despisers, who now exult in such perfect se- 
eurity. May the Lord, the King of kings, establish your 
throne with righteousness, and your kingdom with equity. 


Basix, 1st August, 1536. 


GENERAL SYLLABUS. 


Tur design of the Author in these Christian Institutes is 
twofold, relating, First, to the knowledge of God, as the way 
to attain a blessed immortality; and, in connection with and 
subservience to this, Secondly, to the knowledge of ourselves. 

In the prosecution of this design, he strictly follows the 
method of the Apostles’ Creed, as being most familiar to all 
Christians. For as the Creed consists of four parts, the first 
relating to God the Father, the second to the Son, the third 
to the Holy Spirit, the fourth to the Church; so the Author 
‘distributes the whole of this work into Four Books, correspond- 
ing respectively to the four parts of the Creed ; as will clearly 
appear from the following detail : — 

I. The first article of the Creed relates to God the Father, 
and to the creation, conservation, and government of all things, 
which are included in his omnipotence. 

So the first book is on the knowledge of God, considered 
as the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of the universe at 
large, and of every thing contained in it. It shows both the 
nature and tendency of the true knowledge of the Creator — 
that this is not learned in the schools, but that every man from 
his birth is self-taught it— Yet that the depravity of men is 
so great as to corrupt and extinguish this knowledge, partly 
by ignorance, partly by wickedness; so that it neither leads 
him to glorify God as he ought, nor conducts him to the at- 
tainment of happiness — And though this internal knowledge 
is assisted by all the creatures around, which serve as a mirror 
to display the Divine perfections, yet that man does not profit 
by it — Therefore, that to those, whom it is God’s will to bring 
to an intimate and saving knowledge of himself, he gives his — 
written word; which introduces observations on the sacred 
Scripture — That he has therein revealed himself; that not 
the Father only, but the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, uni-. 


VOL. I. 6 


42, GENERAL SYLLABUS. 


ted, is the Creator of heaven and earth; whom neither the 
knowledge innate by nature, nor the very beautiful mirror dis- 
played to us in the world, can, in consequence of our depravity 
teach us to know so as to glorify him. This gives occasion 
for treating of the revelation of God in the Scripture, of the 
unity of the Divine Essence, and the trinity of Persons. —'T'o 
prevent man from attributing to God the blame of his own 
voluntary blindness, the Author shows the state of man at his 
creation, and treats of the image of God, free-will, and the 
primitive integrity of nature. — Having finished the subject of 
creation, he proceeds to the conservation and government of 
all things, concluding the first book with a full discussion of 
the doctrine of divine providence. 

II. But since man is fallen by sin from the state in which 
he was created, it is necessary to come to Christ. Therefore 
it follows in the Creed, ‘‘ And in Jesus Christ, his only Son ow 
Lord,” &c. 

So in the second book of the Institutes our Author treats of 
the knowledge of God as the Redeemer in Christ ; and having 
shown the fall of man, leads him to Christ the Mediator. 
Here he states the doctrine of original sin—that man pos- 
sesses no inherent strength to enable him to deliver himself 
from sin and the impending curse, but that, on the contrary, 
nothing can proceed from him, antecedently to reconciliation 
and renovation, but what is deserving of condemnation — 
Therefore, that, man being utterly lost in himself, and incapa- 
' ble of conceiving even a good thought by which he may re- 
store himself, or perform actions acceptable to God, he must 
seek redemption out of himself, in Christ — That the Law was 
given for this purpose, not to confine its observers to itself, but 
to conduct them to Christ; which gives occasion to introduce 
an exposition of the Moral Law — That he was known, as the 
Author of salvation, to the Jews under the Law, but more 
fully under the Gospel, in which he is manifested to the world. 
— Hence follows the doctrine of the similarity and. difference 
of the Old and New Testament, of the Law and Gospel. — It 
is next stated, that, in order to the complete accomplishment 
of salvation, it was necessary for the eternal Son of God to be- 
come man, and that he actually assumed a real human nature : 
—it is also shown how these two natures constitute one per- 


GENERAL SYLLABUS. 43 


son — That the office of Christ, appointed for the acquisition 
and application of complete salvation by his merit and efficacy, 
is sacerdotal, regal, and prophetical.—Next follows the man- 
ner in which Christ executed his office, or actually perfurmed 
the part of a Mediator, being an exposition of the Articles re- 
specting his death, resurrection, and ascension to heaven. — 
Lastly, the Author shows the truth and propriety of affirming 
that Christ merited the grace of God and salvation for us. 

Iif. As long as Christ is separate from us, he profits us 
nothing. Hence the necessity of our being ingrafted into him, 
as branches into a vine. Therefore the doctrine concerning 
Christ is followed, in the third part of the Creed, by this clause, 
“T believe in the Holy Spirit,” as being the bond of union 
between us and Christ. 

So in the third book our Author treats of the Holy Spirit, 
who unites us to Christ — and consequently of faith, by which 
we embrace Christ, with his twofold tenefit, free righteous- 
ness, which he imputes to us, and regeneration, which he 
commences within us, by bestowing repentance upon us. — — 
And to show that we have not the least room to glory in such 
faith as is unconnected with the pursuit of repentance, before 
proceeding to the full discussion of justification, he treats at 
large of repentance and the continual exercise of it, which 
Christ, apprehended by faith, produces in us by his Spirit. — 
He next fully discusses the first and chief benefit of Christ 
when united to us by the Holy Spirit, that is, justification — 
and then treats of prayer, which resembles the hand that ac- 
tually receives those blessings to be enjoyed, which faith 
knows, from the word of promise, to be laid up with God for 
vur use. — But as all men are not wnited to Christ, the sole 
Author of salvation, by the Holy Spirit, who creates and pre- 
serves faith in us, he treats of God’s eternal election; which is 
the cause that we, in whom he foresaw no good but what he 
intended freely to bestow, have been favoured with the gift of 
Christ, and united to God by the effectual call of the Gospel. 
— Lastly, he treats of complete regeneration, and the fruition 
of happiness; that is, the final resurrection, towards which our 
eyes must be directed, since in this world the felicity of the 
pious, in respect of enjoyment, is only begun. 

IV. But as the Holy Spirit does not unite all men to Christ, 


4A, GENERAL SYLLABUS: 


or make them partakers of faith, and on those to whom he im- 
parts it he does not ordinarily bestow it without means, but 
employs for this purpose the preaching of the Gospel and the 
use of the sacraments, with the administration of all discipline, 
therefore it follows in the Creed, “I believe in the Holy Cath- 
olic Church,” whom, though involved in eternal death, yet, in 
pursuance of the gratuitous election, God has freely reconciled 
to himself in Christ, and made partakers of the Holy Spirit, 
that, being ingrafted into Christ, they may have communion 
with him as their head, whence flows a perpetual remission of 
sins, and a full restoration to eternal life. 

So in the fourth book our Author treats of the Church — then 
of the means used by the Holy Spirit in effectually calling from 
spiritual death, and preserving the church —the word and sac- 
raments — baptism and the Lord’s supper— which are as it 
were Christ’s regal sceptre, by which he commences his spir- 
itual reign in the Church by the energy of his Spirit, and car- 
ries it forwards from day to day during the present life, after 
the close of which he perfects it without those means’ 

And as political institutions are the asylums of the Church 
in this life, though civil government is distinct from the spir- 
itual kingdom of Christ, our Author instructs us respecting it 
as a signal blessing of God, which the Church ought to ac- 
knowledge with gratitude of heart, till we are called out of 
this tra sitory state to the heavenly inheritance, where God 
will be all in all. . 

This is the plan of the Institutes, which may be comprised 
in the following brief summary : — 

Man, created originally upright, being afterwards ruined, not 
partially, but totally, finds salvation out of himself, wholly in 
Christ ; to whom being united by the Holy Spirit, freely be- 
stowed, without any regard of future works, he enjoys in him 
a twofold benefit, the perfect imputation of righteousness, which 
attends him to the grave, and the commencement of sanctifica- 
tion, which he daily increases, till at length he completes it at 
the day of regeneration or resurrection of the body, so that in 
eternal life and the heavenly inheritance his praises are cele- 
nrated for such stupendous mercy. 


INSTITUTES 


OF THE 


CHRISTIAN RELIGION 


BOOK I. 


ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE CREATOR. 


ARGUMENT. 


Tue first book treats of the knowledge of God the Creator ; but, this 
being chiefly manifested in the creation of man, man also is made 
the subject of discussion. Thus the principal topics of the whole 
treatise are two — the knowledge of God, and the knowledge of man. 
In the first chapter, they are considered together; in the following 
chapters, separately; yet some things are introduced, which may be 
referred to either or both. What respects the Scripture and images 
may belong to the knowledge of God; what respects the formation 
of the world, the holy angels, and the devils, to the knowledge of 
man; and what respects the manner in which God governs the 
world, to both. 

On the first of these topics, the knowledge of God, this book shows, 

First, What kind of knowledge God himself requires—Chap. IT. 

Secondly, Where it must be sought—Chap. III.—IX., as follows: 

1. Not in man; because, though the human mind is naturally 
endued with it, yet it is extinguished, partly by ignorance, 
partly by wickedness—Chap. III. IV. 

2. Nor in the structure of the world; because, though it 
shines there with the brightest evidence, testimonies of 
that kind, however plain, are, through our stupidity, 
wholly useless to us—Chap. V. 

3. But in the Scripture—Chap. VI.—IX. 


46 ARGUMENT. 


Thirdly, What kind of a being God is—Chap. X. 

Fourthly, The impiety of ascribing to God a visible form, with obser- 
vations on the adoration and origin of 1mages—Chap. XI. 

Fifthly, The reasonableness that God alone should be supremely wor 
shipped—Chap. XII. 

Lastly, The unity of the Divine Essence, and the distinction of three 
Persons—Chap. XIII. 

On the other of these topics, the knowledge of man, it contains, 

First, A dissertation on the creation of the world, and on the good 
and evil angels, all which relate to man—Chap. XIV. 

Secondly, Proceeding to man himself, an examination of his nature 
and powers—Chap. XV. 

But, in order to a clearer illustration of the knowledge of God and 
man, the three remaining chapters treat of the government of all 
human actions and of the whole world, in opposition to fortune and 
fate, stating the pure doctrine, and showing its use; and conclude 
with proving that, though God uses the agency of the wicked, he ts 
pure from all pollution, and chargeable with no blame. 


CHAPTER LI. 


THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD AND THE 
KNOWLEDGE OF OURSELVES. 


True and substantial wisdom principally consists of two 
_ parts, the knowledge of God, and the knowledge of ourselves. 
But, while these two branches of knowledge are so intimately 
connected, which of them precedes and produces the other, is 
not easy to discover. For, in the first place, no man can take 
a survey of himself but he must immediately turn to the con- 
templation of God, in whom he “ lives and moves ;’’ (a) since it 
is evident that the talents which we possess are not from our- 
selves, and that our very existence is nothing but a subsistence 
in God alone. ‘These bounties, distilling to us by drops from 
heaven, form, as it were, so many streams conducting us to 
the fountain-head. Our poverty conduces to a clearer display 
of the infinite fulness of God. Especially, the miserable ruin, 
into which we have been plunged by the defection of the first 
man, compels us to raise our eyes towards heaven, not only as 
hungry and famished, to seek thence a supply for our wants, 


(a) Acts xvii. 2. 


BOOK I.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. AT 


but, aroused with fear, to learn humility. For, since man is 
subject to a world of miseries, and has been spoiled of his 
divine array, this melancholy exposure discovers an immense 
mass of deformity : every one, therefore, must be so impressed 
with a consciousness of his own infelicity, as to arrive at some 
knowledge of God. Thus a sense of our ignorance, vanity, 
poverty, infirmity, depravity, and corruption, leads us to per- 
ceive and acknowledge that in the Lord alone are to be found 
true wisdom, solid strength, perfect goodness, and unspotted 
righteousness ; and so, by our imperfections, we are excited to 
a consideration of the perfections of God. Nor can we really 
aspire toward him, till we have begun to be displeased with 
ourselves. For who would not gladly rest satisfied with him- 
self? where is the man not actually absorbed in self-compla- 
cency, while he remains unacquainted with his true situation, 
or content with his own endowments, and ignorant or forgetful 
of his own misery? The knowledge of ourselves, therefore, 
is not only an incitement to seek after God, but likewise a con- 
siderable assistance towards finding him. 

If. On the other hand, it is plain that no man can arrive at 
the true knowledge of himself, without having first contem- 
plated the divine character, and then descended to the consid- 
eration of hisown. For, such is the native pride of us all, we 
invariably esteem ourselves righteous, innocent, wise, and holy, 
till we are convinced, by clear proofs, of our unrighteousness, 
turpitude, folly, and impurity. But we are never thus con- 
vinced, while we confine our attention to ourselves, and regard 
not the Lord, who is the only standard by which this judgment 
ought to be formed. Because, from our natural proneness to 
hypocrisy, any vain appearance of righteousness abundantly 
contents us instead of theyreality; and, every thing within 
and around us being exceedingly defiled, we are delighted. 
with what is least so, as extremely pure, while we confine our 
reflections within the limits of human corruption. So the 
eye, accustomed to see nothing but black, judges that to be 
very white, which is but whitish, or perhaps brown. Indeed, 
the senses of our bodies may assist us in discovering how 
grossly we err in estimating the powers of the soul. For if at 
noon-day we look either on the ground, or at any surrounding 
objects, we conclude our vision to be very strong and piercing ; 
but when we raise our eyes and steadily look at the sun, they 
are at once dazzled and confounded with such a blaze of 
brightness, and we are constrained to confess, that our sight, 
so piercing in viewing terrestrial things, when directed to the 
sun, is dimness itself. Thus also it happens in the considera- 
tion of our spiritual endowments. For as long as our views 
are bounded by the earth, perfectly content with our own 


48 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1. 


righteousness, wisdom, and strength, we fondly flatter our- 
selves, and fancy we are little less than demigods. But, if we 
once elevate our thoughts to God, and consider his nature, and 
the consummate perfection of his righteousness, wisdom, and 
strength, to which we ought to be conformed, — what before 
charmed us in ourselves under the false pretext of righteous 
ness, will soon be loathed as the greatest iniquity; what 
strangely deceived us under the title of wisdom, will be de- 
spised as extreme folly ; and what wore the appearance of 
strength, will be proved to be most wretched impotence. So 
very remote from the divine purity is what seems in us the 
highest perfection. 

III. Hence that horror and amazement with which the 
Scripture always represents the saints to have been impressed 
and disturbed, on every discovery of the presence of God. For 
when we see those, who before his appearance stood secure and 
firm, so astonished and affrighted at the manifestation of his 
glory, as to faint and almost expire through fear, —we must 
infer that man is never sufficiently affected with a knowledge 
of his own meanness, till he has compared himself with the 
Divine Majesty. Of this consternation we have frequent ex- 
amples in the Judges and Prophets; so that it was a common 
expression among the Lord’s people — ‘‘ We shall die, because 
we have seen God.” (6b) Therefore the history of Job, to 
humble men with a consciousness of their pollution, impotence, 
and folly, derives its principal argument from a description of 
the Divine purity, power, and wisdom. And not without rea- 
son. For we see how Abraham, the nearer he approached to 
behold the glory of the Lord, the more fully acknowledged 
himself to be but ‘dust and ashes;” (c) and how Elias (d) 
could not bear his approach without covering his face, his ap- 
pearance is so formidable. And what can man do, all vile and 
corrupt, when fear constrains even the cherubim themselves to 
veil their faces? This is what the prophet Isaiah speaks of — 
**the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when 
the Lord of hosts shall reign: ” (e) that is, when he shall make 
a fuller and nearer exhibition of his splendour, it shall eclipse 
the splendour of the brightest object besides. But, though the 
knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves be intimate- 
ly connected, the proper order of instruction requires us first to 
treat of the former, and then to proceed to the discussion of the 
Jatter. 


(6) Judg. xiii. 22. (d) 1 Kings xix. 13. 
(c) Gen. xvill. 27. (e) Isaiah yi. 2; xxiv. 23. 


CHAP. I1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 49 


CHAPTER IL. 
THE NATURE AND TENDENCY OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. 


By the knowledge of God, I intend not merely a notion that 
there is such a Being, but also an acquaintance with whatever 
we ought to know concerning Him, conducing to his glory 
and our benefit. For we cannot with propriety say, there is 
any xnowledge of God where there is no religion or piety. I 
have no reference here to that species of knowledge by which 
men, lost and condemned in themselves, apprehend God the 
Redeemer in Christ the Mediator; but only to that first and 
simiple knowledge, to which the genuine order of nature would 
Jead us, if Adam had retained his innocence. For though, in 
the present ruined state of human nature, no man will ever 
perceive God to be a Father, or the Author of salvation, or in 
any respect propitious, but as pacified by the mediation of 
Christ ; yet it is one thing to understand, that God our Maker 
supports us by his power, governs us by his providence, nour- 
ishes us by his goodness, and follows us with blessings of every 
kind, and another to embrace the grace of reconciliation pro- 
posed to usin Christ. Therefore, since God is first manifested, 
both in the structure of the world and in the general tenor of 
Scripture, simply as the Creator, and afterwards reveals him- 
self in the person of Christ as a Redeemer, hence arises a two- 
fold knowledge of him; of which the former is first to be 
considered, and the other will follow in its proper place. For 
though our mind cannot conceive of God, without ascribing 
some worship to him, it will not be sufficient merely to appre- 
hend that he is the only proper object of universal worship and 
adoration, unless we are also persuaded that he is the fountain 
of all good, and seek for none but in him. This I maintain, 
not only because he sustains the universe, as he once made it, 
by his infinite power, governs it by his wisdom, preserves it. 
by his goodness, and especially reigns over the human race in 
righteousness and judgment, exercising a merciful forbearance, 
and defending them by his protection; but because there can- 
not be found the least particle of wisdom, light, righteousness, 
power, rectitude, or sincere truth which does not proceed from 
him, and claim him for its author: we should therefore learn 
to expect and supplicate all these things from him, and thank- 
fully to acknowledge what he gives us. For this sense of the 
divine perfections is calculated to teach us piety, which pro- 
duces religion. By piety, I mean a reverence and love of God, 

VOL. I. 


a 
50 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1. 


arising from a knowledge of his benefits. For, till men are 
sensible that they owe every thing to God, that they are sup- 
ported by his paternal care, that he is the Author of all the 
blessings they enjoy, and that nothing should be sought inde- 
pendently of him, they will never voluntarily submit to his 
authority ; they will never truly and cordially devote them- 
selves to his service, unless they rely upon him alone for true 
felicity. 

II. Cold and frivolous, then, are the speculations of those 
who employ themselves in disquisitions on the essence of God, 
when it would be more interesting to us to become acquainted 
with his character, and to know what is agreeable to his na- 
ture. For what end is answered by professing, with Epicu- 
rus, that there is a God, who, discarding all concern about the 
world, indulges himself in perpetual inactivity ? What benefit 
arises from the knowledge of a God with whom we have ‘no 
concern? Our knowledge of God should rather tend, first, to 
teach us fear and reverence; and, secondly, to instruct us to 
implore all good at his hand, and to render him the praise of 
all that we receive. For how can you entertain a thought of 
God without immediately reflecting, that, being a creature of 
his formation, you must, by right of creation, be subject to his 
authority ? that you are indebted to him for your life, and that 
all your actions should be done with reference to him? If 
this be true, it certainly follows that your life is miserably cor- 
rupt, unless it be regulated by a desire of obeying him, since 
his will ought to be the rule of our conduct. Nor can you 
have aclear view of him without discovering him to be the 
fountain and origin of all good. This would produce a desire 
of union to him, and‘ confidence in him, if the human mind 
were not seduced by its own depravity from the right path of 
investigation. For, even at the first, the pious mind dreams 
not of any imaginary deity, but contemplates only the one true 
God ; and, concerning him, indulges not the fictions of fancy, 
but, content with believing him to be such as he reveals him- 
self, uses the most diligent and unremitting caution, lest it 
should fall into error by a rash and presumptuous transgression 
of his will. He who thus knows him, sensible that all things 
are subject to his control, confides in him as his Guardian and 
Piotector, and unreservedly commits himself to his care. As- 
sured that he is the author of all blessings, in distress or want 

-he immediately flies to his protection, and expects his aid. 
Persuaded of his goodness and mercy, he relies on him with 
unlimited confidence, nor doubts of finding in his clemency a 
remedy provided for all his evils. Knowing him to be his 
Lord and Father, he concludes that he ought to mark his gov- 
ernment in all things, revere his majesty, endeavour to promote 


. 
CHAP. 111.] ‘CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 51 


his glory, and obey his commands. Perceiving him to bea 
just Judge, armed with severity for the punishment of crimes, 
he keeps his tribunal always in view, and is restrained by fear 
from provoking his wrath. Yet he is not so terrified at the ap- 
prehension of his justice, as to wish to evade it, even if escape 
were possible ; but loves him as much in punishing the wicked 
as in blessing the pious, because he believes it as necessary to 
his glory to punish the impious and abandoned, as to reward the 
righteous with eternal life. Besides, he restrains himself from 
sin, not merely from a dread of vengeance, but because he 
loves and reveres God as his Father, honours and worships him 
as his Lord, and, even though there were no hell, would shud- 
der at the thought of offending him. See, then, the nature of 
pure and genuine religion. It consists in faith, united with a -. 
serious fear of God, comprehending a voluntary reverence, and 
producing legitimate worship agreeable to the injunctions of 
the law. And this requires to be the more carefully remarked, 
because men in general render to God a formal worship, but 
very few truly reverence him; while great ostentation in cer- 
emonies is universally displayed, but sincerity of heart is 
rarely to be found. 


CHAPTER IIL. 


THE HUMAN MIND NATURALLY ENDUED WITH THE KNOWLEDGE 
OF GOD. ; 


We lay it down as a position not to be controverted, that 
the human mind, even by natural instinct, possesses some 
sense of a Deity. For that no man might shelter himself 
under the pretext of ignorance, God hath given to all some 
apprehension of his existence, (f') the memory of which he 
frequently and insensibly renews; so that, as men universally 
know that there is a God, and that he is their Maker, they 
must be condemned by their own testimony, for not having 
worshipped him and consecrated their lives to his service. If 
we seek for ignorance of a Deity, it is nowhere more likely to 
be found, than among tribes the most stupid and furthest from 
civilization. But, as the celebrated Cicero observes, there is 
no nation so barbarous, no race so savage, as not to be firmly 
persuaded of the being of a God. (g) Even those who in 
other respects appear to differ but little from brutes, always 


(f) Rom. i.20. (g) Cicer. de Natur. Deor. lib. i. Lactant. Inst. lib. iii. cap. 10 


52 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boor . 


retain some sense of religion; so fully are the minds of men 
possessed with this common principle, which is closely inter- 
woven with their original composition. Now, since there has 
never been a country or family, from the beginning of the © 
world, totally destitute of religion, it is a tacit confession, 
that some sense of the Divinity is inscribed on every heart. 
Of this opinion, idolatry itself furnishes ample proof. For 
we know how reluctantly man would degrade himself to 
exalt other creatures above him. His preference of wor- 
shipping a piece of wood or stone, to being thought to have 
no god, evinces the impression of a Deity on the human mind 
to be very strong, the obliteration of which is more difficult 
than a total change of the natural disposition ; and this is cer- 
‘tainly changed, whenever man leaves his natural pride, and 
voluntarily descends to such meannesses under the notion of 
worshipping God. 

IJ. It is most absurd, then, to pretend, as is asserted by 
some, that religion was the contrivance of a few subtle and 
designing men, a political machine to confine the simple mul- 
titude to their duty, while those who inculcated the worship 
of God on others, were themselves far from believing that any 
god existed. I confess, indeed, that artful men have intro- 
duced many inventions into religion, to fill the vulgar with 
reverence, and strike them with terror, in order to obtain the 
greater command over their minds. | But this they never could 
have accomplished, if the minds of men had not previously 
been possessed of a firm persuasion of the existence of God, 
from which the propensity to religion proceeds. And that 
they who cunningly imposed on the illiterate, under the pre- 
text of religion, were themselves wholly destitute of any 
knowledge of God, is quite incredible. For though there 
were some in ancient times, and many arise in the present 
age, who deny the existence of God, yet, in spite of their re- 
luctance, they are continually receiving proofs of what they 
desire to disbelieve. We read of no one guilty of more 
audacious or unbridled contempt of the Deity than Caligula ; 
yet no man ever trembled with greater distress at any instance 
of Divine wrath, so that he was constrained to dread the Di- 
vinity whom he professed to despise. This you may always 
see exemplified in persons of similar character. For the most 
audacious contemners of God are most alarmed, even at the 
noise of a falling leaf. Whence arises this, but from the ven- 
geance of the Divine Majesty, smiting their consciences. the 
more powerfully in proportion to their efforts to fly from it? 
‘They try every refuge to hide themselves from the Lord’s 
presence, and to efface it from their minds; but their attempts 
to elude it are all invain. ‘Though it may seem to disappear 


CHAP. UI. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 53 


for a moment, it presently returns with increased violence ; 
so that, if they have any remission of the anguish of conscience, 
it resembles the sleep of persons intoxicated, or subject to fren- 
zy, who enjoy no placid rest while sleeping, being continually 
harassed with horrible and tremendous dreams. The impious 
themselves, therefore, exemplify the observation, that the idea 
of a God is never lost in the human mind. 

III. It will always be evident to persons of correct judgment, 
that the idea of a Deity impressed on the mind of man is in- 
delible. ‘That all have by nature an innate persuasion of the 
Divine existence, a persuasion inseparable from their very con- 
stitution, we have abundant evidence in the contumacy of the 
wicked, whose furious struggles to extricate themselves from 
the fear of God are unavailing. ‘Though Diagoras, and others 
like him, turn to ridicule what all ages have believed of re- 
ligion ; (A) though Dionysius scoff at the judgment of Heaven, — 
it is but a foreed laughter, for the worm of a guilty conscience 
torments them within, worse than if they were seared with hot 
irons. [agree not with Cicero, that errors in process of time 
become obsolete, and that religion is increased and ameliorated 
daily. For the world, as will shortly be observed, uses its ut- 
most endeavours to banish all knowledge of God, and tries every 
method of corrupting his worship. I only maintain, that while 
the stupid insensibility which the wicked wish to acquire, to 
promote their contempt of God, preys upon their minds, yet 
the sense of a Deity, which they ardently desire to extinguish, 
is still strong, and frequently discovers itself. Whence we in- 
fer, that this is a doctrine, not first to be learned in the schools, 
but which every man from his birth is self-taught, and which, 
though many strain every nerve to banish it from them, yet 
nature itself permits none to forget. Now, if the end for which 
all men are born and live, be to know God,—and unless the 
knowledge of God have reached this point, it is uncertain and 
vain, —it is evident, that all who direct not every thought and 
action of life to this end, are degenerated from the law. of their 
creation. Of this the heathen philosophers themselves were 
not ignorant. ‘This was Plato’s meaning, when he taught that 
the chief good of the soul consists in similitude to God, when 
the soul, having a clear knowledge of him, is wholly trans- 
formed into his likeness. (¢) ‘The reasoning also of Gryllus, in 
Plutarch, is very accurate, when he affirms, that men entirely 
destitute of religion, not only do not excel the brutes, but are 
in many respects far more wretched, being obnoxious to evil 
under so many forms, and always dragging on a tumultuous 


(hk) Cicer. de Nat. Deor. lib. 1 & 3. Valer. Maxim. lib. 1, cap. 1. 
(i) In Phed. & Theet. 


54. INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK I. 


and restless life. 'The worship of God is therefore the only 
thing which renders men superior to brutes, and makes them 
aspire to immortality. 


Pe etn 


CHAPTER IV. 


THIS KNOWLEDGE EXTINGUISHED OR CORRUPTED, PARTLY BY 
IGNORANCE, PARTLY BY WICKEDNESS, 


WuiLe experience testifies that the seeds of religion are sown 
by God in every heart, we scarcely find one man in a hundred 
who cherishes what he has received, and not one in whom 
they grow to maturity, much less bear fruit in due season. 
Some perhaps grow vain in their own superstitions, while 
others revolt from God with intentional wickedness; but all 
degenerate from the true knowledge of him. ‘The fact is, that 
no genuine piety remains in the world. But, in saying that 
some fall into superstition through error, I would not insinuate 
that their ignorance excuses them from guilt; because their 
blindness is always connected with pride, vanity, and contu- 
macy. Pride and vanity are discovered, when miserable men, 
in seeking after God, rise not, as they ought, above their own 
level, but judge of him according to their carnal stupidity, and 
leave the proper path of investigation in pursuit of speculations 
as vain as they are curious. ‘Their conceptions of him are 
formed, not according to the representations he gives of him- 
self, but by the inventions of their own presumptuous imagina-. 
tions. This gulf being opened, whatever course they take, 
they must be rushing forwards to destruction. None of their 
subsequent attempts for the worship or service of God can be 
considered as rendered to him; because they worship not him, 
but a figmont of their own brains in his stead. ‘This depravity 
Paul expressly remarks: ‘“ Professing themselves to be wise, 
they became fools.” (k) He had before said, ‘ they became 
vain in their imaginations.”’ But lest any should exculpate 
them, he adds that they were deservedly blinded, because, 
not content within the bounds of sobriety, but arrogating to 
themselves more than was right, they wilfully darkened, and 
even infatuated themselves with pride, vanity, and perverse- 
ness. Whence it follows, that their folly is inexcusable, which 
originates not only in a vain curiosity, but in false confidence, 
and an immoderate desire to exceed the limits of human 
knowledge. 

(k) Rom. i. 22. 


CHAP. IVv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 55 


If. David's assertion, that ‘“‘the fool hath said in his heart, 
There is no God,” (2) is primarily, as we shall soon see in an- 
other place, to be restricted to those who extinguish the light 
of nature, and wilfully stupefy themselves. For we see many, 
become hardened by bold and habitual transgressions, striving 
to banish all remembrance of God, which the instinct of nature 
is still suggesting to their minds. To render their madness 
more detestable, he introduces them as expressly denying the 
existence of God; not that they deprive him of his being, but 
because they rob him of his justice and providence, shutting 
him up as an idler in heaven. Now, as nothing would be more 
inconsistent with Deity, than to abandon the government of 
the world, leave it to fortune, and connive at the crimes of 
men, that they might wanton with impunity, — whoever ex- 
tinguishes all fear of the heavenly judgment, and indulges 
himself in security, denies that there is any God. After the 
impious have wilfully shut their own eyes, it is the righteous 
vengeance of God upon them, to darken their understandings, 
so that, seeing, they may not perceive. (m) David is the best 
interpreter of his own meaning, in another place, where he 
says, “‘ The wicked have no fear of God before their eyes; ” (n) 
and again, that they encourage themselves in their iniquities 
with the flattering persuasion that God doth not see them. (0) 
Though they are constrained to acknowledge the existence of 
God, yet they rob him of his glory, by detracting from. his 
power. For as God, according to the testimony of Paul, 
‘cannot deny himself,’ (p) because he perpetually remains 
like himself, — those who feign him to be a vain and lifeless 
image, are truly said to deny God. It must also be remarked, 
that, though they strive against their own natural understand- 
ing, and desire not only to banish him thence, but even to an- 
nihilate him in heaven, their insensibility can never prevail, 
so as to prevent God from sometimes recalling them to his 
tribunal. .But as no dread restrains them from violent opposi- 
tion to the divine will, it is evident, as long as they are carried 
away with such a blind impetuosity, that they are governed 
by a brutish forgetfulness of God. 

III. Thus is overthrown the vain excuse pleaded by many 
for their superstition ; for they satisfy themselves with any at- 
tention to religion, however preposterous, not considering that 
the Divine Will is the perpetual rule to which true religion 
ought to be conformed ; that God ever continues like himself ; 
that he is no spectre or phantasm, to be metamorphosed according 
to the fancy of every individual. It is easy to see how super- 
stition mocks God with hypocritical services, while it attempts 


(1) Psalm xiv. 1. (m) Isaiah vi. 9. (n) Psalm xxxvi. 1. 
(0) Psalm x. 11. (p) 2 Tim. ii. 13. 


56 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1 


to please him. For, embracing only those things which he 
declares he disregards, it either contemptuously practises, or 
even openly rejects, what he prescribes and declares to be 
pleasing in his sight. Persons who introduce newly-invented 
methods of worshipping God, really worship and adore the 
creature of their distempered imaginations; for they would 
never have dared to trifle in such a manner with God, if they 
had not first feigned a god conformable to their own false and 
foolish notions. Wherefore the apostle pronounces a vague 
and unsettled notion concerning the Deity to be ignorance of 
God. ‘When ye knew not God, (says he,) ye did service unto 
them which by nature were no gods.’’(q) And in another 
place he speaks of the Ephesians as having been ‘“ without 
God,” (r) while they were strangers to a right knowledge of 
the only true God. Nor, in this respect, is it of much im- 
portance, whether you imagine to yourself one god or more ; 
for in either case you depart and revolt from the true God, and, 
forsaking him, you have nothing left you but an execrable 
idol. ' We must therefore decide, with Lactantius, that there 
is no legitimate religion unconnected with truth. 

IV. Another sin is, that they never think of God but against 
their inclinations, nor approach him till their reluctance is over- 
come by constraint ; and then they are influenced, not by a 
voluntary fear, proceeding from reverence of the Divine Ma- 
jesty, but by a servile and constrained fear, extorted by the 
divine judgment, which they dread because it is inevitable, at 
the same time that they hate it. Now, to impiety, and to this 
species of it alone, is applicable that assertion of Statius, that 
fear first made gods in the world.(s) ‘They, whose minds are 
alienated from the righteousness of God, earnestly desire the 
subversion of that tribunal, which they know to be established 
for the punishment of transgressions against it. With this 
disposition, they wage war against the Lord, who cannot be 
deprived of his judgment; but when they apprehend his irre- 
sistible arm to be impending over their heads, unable to avert 
or evade it, they tremble with fear. That they may not seem 
altogether to despise him, whose majesty troubles them, they 
practise some form of religion; at the same time not ceasing 
to pollute themselves with vices of every kind, and to add one 
flagitious act to another, till they have violated every part of 
God’s holy law, and dissipated all its righteousness. It is — 
certain, at least, that they are not prevented: by that pretended 
fear of God from enjoying pleasure and satisfaction in their 
sins, practising self-adulation, and preferring the indulgence ot 
their own carnal intemperance to the salutary restraints of the 


(q) Gal. iv. 8. (r) Eph. ii. 12. (s) Statii Thebaid. lib. 3. 


cHaP. v.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 57 


Holy Spirit. But that being a false and vain shadow of re- 
ligion, and scarcely worthy even to be called its shadow, — it is 
easy to infer the wide difference between such a confused 
notion of God, and the piety which is instilled only into the 
minds of the faithful, and is the source of religion. Yet 
hypocrites, who are flying from God, resort to the artifices of 
superstition, for the sake of appearing devoted to him. For 
whereas the whole tenor of their life ought to be a perpetual 
course of obedience to him, they make no scruple of rebelling 
against him in almost all their actions, only endeavouring to 
appease him with a few paltry sacrifices. Whereas he ought 
- to be served with sanctity of life and integrity of heart, they 
invent frivolous trifles and worthless observances, to con- 
ciliate his favour. ‘They abandon themselves to their im- 
purities with the greater licentiousness, because they confide 
in being able to discharge all their duty to him by ridiculous 
expiations. In a word, whereas their confidence ought to be 
placed on him, they neglect him, and depend upon themselves 
or on other creatures. At length they involve themselves in 
such a vast accumulation of errors, that those sparks which 
enable them to discover the glory of God are smothered, and 
at last extinguished by the criminal darkness of iniquity. 
That seed, which it is impossible to eradicate, a sense of the 
existence of a Deity, yet remains; but so corrupted as to pro- 
duce only the worst of fruits. Yet this is a further proof of 
what I now contend for, that an idea of God is naturally en- 
graved on the hearts of men, since necessity extorts a confes- 
sion of it, even from reprobates themselves. In the moment 
of tranquillity, they facetiously mock the Divine Being, and 
with loquacious impertinence derogate from his power. But if 
any despair oppress them, it stimulates them to seek him, and 
dictates concise prayers, which prove that they are not alto- 
gether ignorant of God, but that what ought to have appeared 
before had been suppressed by obstinacy. 


CHAPTER V. 


THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD CONSPICUOUS IN THE FORMATION AND 
CONTINUAL GOVERNMENT OF THE WORLD. 


As the perfection of a happy life consists in the knowledge 
of God, that no man might be precluded from attaining felicity, 
God hath not only sown in the minds of men the seed of re- 

VOL. I. 8 


08 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1. 


ligion, already mentioned, but hath manifested himself in the 
formation of every part of the world, and daily presents him- 
self to public view, in such a manner, that they cannot open 
their eyes without being constrained to behold him. . His es- 
sence indeed is incomprehensible, so that his Majesty is not to be 
perceived by the human senses; but on all his. works he hath 
inscribed his glory in characters so clear, unequivocal, and 
striking, that the most illiterate and stupid cannot exculpate 
themselves by the plea of ignorance. 'The Psalmist therefore, 
with great propriety, exclaims, ‘‘ He covereth himself with light 
as with a garment; ”’ (¢) as if he had said, that his first appear- 
ance in visible apparel was at the creation of the world, when: 
he displayed those glories which are still conspicuous on every 
side. In the same place, the Psalmist compares the expanded 
heavens to a royal pavilion ;—he says that “he layeth the 
beams of his chambers in the waters; maketh the clouds his 
chariot; walketh upon the wings of the wind ;”’ and maketh 
the winds and the lightnings his swift messengers. And be- 
cause the glory of his power and wisdom is more refulgently 
displayed above, heaven is genérally called his palace. And, 
in the first place, whithersoever you turn your eyes, there is 
not an atom of the world in which you cannot behold some 
brilliant sparks at least of his glory. But you cannot at one 
view take a survey of this most ample and beautiful machine 
in all its vast extent, without being completely overwhelmed 
with its infinite splendour. Wherefore the author of the Epistle 
to the Hebrews elegantly represents the worlds as the man- 
ifestations of invisible things ;(v) for the exact symmetry of 
the universe is a mirror, in which we may contemplate the 
otherwise invisible God. For which reason the Psalmist (7) 
attributes to the celestial bodies a language universally known ; 
for they afford a testimony of the Deity too evident to escape 
the observation even of the most ignorant people in the world. 
But the Apostle more distinctly asserts this manifestation to 
men of what was useful to be known concerning God; “ for 
the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are 
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, 
even his eternal power and godhead.” (x) 

If. Of his wonderful wisdom, both heaven and earth con- 
tain innumerable proofs ; not only those more abstruse things, 
which are the subjects of astronomy, medicine, and the whole 
science of physics, but those things which force themselves 
on the view of the most illiterate of mankind, so that they 
cannot open their eyes without being constrained to witness 
them. Adepts, indeed, in those liberal arts, or persons just 


(¢) Psalm civ. 2. (v) Heb. xi. 3. (w) Psalm xix. 1,3. (xz) Rom. i. 20. 


CHAP. v.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 59 


initiated into them, are thereby enabled to proceed much further 
in investigating the secrets of Divine Wisdom. Yet ignorance 
of those sciences prevents no man from such a survey of the 
workmanship of God, as is more than sufficient to excite his 
admiration of the Divine Architect. In disquisitions concern- 
ing the motions of the stars, in fixing their situations, measur- 
ing their distances, and distinguishing their peculiar properties, 
there is need of skill, exactness, and industry ; and the provi- 
dence of God being more clearly revealed by these discoveries, 
the mind ought to rise to a sublimer elevation for the contem- 
plation of his glory. But since the meanest and most illiterate 
of mankind, who are furnished with no other assistance than 
their own eyes, cannot be ignorant of the excellence of the 
Divine skill, exhibiting itself in that endless, yet regular variety 
of the innumerable celestial host, — it is evident, that the Lord 
abundantly manifests his wisdom to every individual on earth. 
Thus it belongs to a man of preeminent ingenuity to examine, 
with the critical exactness of Galen, the connection, the sym- 
metry, the beauty, and the use of the various parts of the hu- 
man body. But the compositfon of the human body is univer- 
sally acknowledged to be so ingenious, as to render its Maker 
the object of deserved admiration. 

Ill. And therefore some of the philosophers (y) of antiquity 
have justly called man a microcosm, or world in miniature ; 
because he is an. eminent specimen of the power, goodness, 
and wisdom of God, and contains in him wonders enough to 
occupy the attention of our minds, if we are not indisposed to 
such a study. For this reason, Paul, having remarked that the 
blind ‘‘ might feel after God and find him,” immediately adds, 
that ‘“‘ he is not far from every one of us;” (2) because every 
man has undoubtedly an inward perception of the celestial 
goodness, by which he is quickened. But if, to attain some 
ideas of God, it be not necessary for us to go beyond ourselves, 
what an unpardonable indolence is it in those who will not 
descend into themselves that they may find him! For the 
same reason, David, having briefly celebrated the wonderful 
name and honour of God, which are universally conspicuous, 
immediately exclaims, ‘‘ What is man, that thou art mindful 
of him?” (a) Again, ‘ Out of the mouths of babes and suck- 
lings thou hast ordained strength.”? ‘Thus declaring not only 
that the human race is a clear mirror of the works of God, but 
that even infants at the breast have tongues so eloquent for the 
publication of his glory, that there is no necessity for other 
orators; whence he hesitates not to produce them as fully 


(y) Macrob. lib. 2. de Somn. Scip. c. 12. Boet. de Defin. Arist. lib. 1. de 
Hist. Animal. (z) Acts xvii. 27. (a) Psalm viii. 2, 4 


60 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1. 


capable of confuting the madness of those whose diabolical 
pride would wish to extinguish the name of God. Hence also 
what Paul quotes from Aratus, that ‘‘ we are the offspring of 
God ;”’(6) since his adorning us with such great excellence 
has proved him to be our Father. So, from the dictates of 
common sense and experience, the heathen poets called him 
the Father of men. Nor will any man freely devote himself 
to the service of God, unless he have been allured to love and 
reverence him, by first experiencing his paternal love. 

IV. But herein appears the vile ingratitude of men — that, 
while they ought to be proclaiming the praises of God for the 
wonderful skill displayed in their formation, and the inestima- 
ble bounties he bestows on them, they are only inflated with 
the greater pride. ‘They perceive how wonderfully God works 
within them, and experience teaches them what a variety of 
blessings they receive from his liberality. They are con- 
strained to know, whether willingly or not, that these are 
proofs of his divinity: yet they suppress this knowledge in 
their hearts. Indeed, they need not go out of themselves, pro- 
vided they do not, by arrogating to themselves what is given 
from heaven, smother the light which illuminates their minds 
to a clearer discovery of God. Even in the present day, there 
are many men of monstrous dispositions, who hesitate not to 
pervert all the seeds of divinity sown in the nature of man, in 
order to bury in oblivion the name of God.. How detestable 
is this frenzy, that man, discovering in his body and soul a 
hundred vestiges of God, should make this very excellence a 
pretext for the denial of his being! ‘They will not say that 
they are distinguished from the brutes by chance; but they 
ascribe it to nature, which they consider as the author of all 
things, and remove God out of sight. They perceive most 
exquisite workmanship in all their members, from the head to 
the feet. Here also they substitute nature in the place of God. 
But above all, the rapid motions of the soul, its noble faculties, 
and excellent talents, discover a Divinity not easily concealed ; 
unless the Epicureans, like the Cyclops, from this eminence 
should audaciously wage war against God. Do all the trea- 
sures of heavenly wisdom concur in the government of a worm 
five feet in length? and shall the universe be destitute of this 
privilege? To state that there is in the soul a certain ma- 
chinery corresponding to every part of the body, is so far from 
obscuring the divine glory, that it is rather an illustration of it. 
Let Epicurus answer; what concourse of atoms in the con- 
coction of food and drink distributes part into excrements and 
part into blood, and causes the several members to perform 


(b) Acts xvii. 28. 


cHap. v.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 61 


their different offices with as much diligence as if so many 
souls by common consent governed one body? 
V. But my present concern is not with that sty of swines: 

[ rather address those who, influenced by preposterous subtil- 
ties, would indirectly employ that frigid dogma of Aristotle to 
destroy the immortality of the soul, and deprive God of his 
rights. For, because the organs of the body are directed by 
the faculties of the soul, they pretend the soul to be so united 
to the body as to be incapable of subsisting without it; and by 
their eulogies of nature do all they can to suppress the name 
of God. But the powers of the soul are far from being limited 
to functions subservient to the body. For what concern has 
the body in measuring the heavens, counting the number of 
the stars, computing their several magnitudes, and acquiring a 
knowledge of their respective distances, of the celerity or tar- 
diness of their courses, and of the degrees of their various dec- 
linations? I grant, indeed, the usefulness of astronomy, but 
only remark that, in these profound researches relating to the 
celestial orbs, there is no corporeal coOperation, but that the 
soul has its functions distinct from the body. I have proposed 
one example, whence inferences may readily be drawn by the 
readers. ‘lhe manifold agility of the soul, which enables it to 
take a survey of heaven and earth; to join the past and the 
present ; to retain the memory of things heard long ago; to 
conceive of whatever it chooses by the help of imagination ; 
its ingenuity also in the invention of such admirable arts, — are 
certain proofs of the divinity in man. Besides, in sleep, it not 
only turns and moves itself round, but conceives many useful 
ideas, reasons on various subjects, and even divines future 
events. What shall we say, but that the vestiges of immortal- 
ity impressed upon man are absolutely indelible? Now, what 
reason can be given, why man, who is of divine original, should 
not acknowledge his Creator? Shall we indeed, by the judg- 
ment with which we are endued, discern right from wrong, 
and shall there be no judge in heaven? Shall we, even in our 
sleep, have some remains of intelligence, and shall there be no 
God to govern the world? Shall we be esteemed the invent- 
ers of so many useful arts, that God may be defrauded of his 
praise? Whereas experience abundantly teaches, that all we 
have is various'y distributed to us by some superior Being. 
The clamour of some, about a secret inspiration animating the 
whole world, is not only weak, but altogether profane. ‘They 
are pleased with the celebrated passage of Virgil — 

“Know, first, a spirit, with an active flame, 

Fills, feeds, and animates this mighty frame ; 

Runs through the watery worlds, the fields of air, 


The ponderous earth, the depths of heaven ; and there 
Glows in the.sun and moon, and burns in every star. 


62 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book © 


Thus, mingling with the mass, the general soul 

Lives in the parts, and agitates the whole. 

From that celestial energy began 

The low-browed brute, th’ imperial race of man, 

The painted birds who wing th’ aérial plain, 

And all the mighty monsters of the main ; 

Their souls at first from high Olympus came,’’ &c. (c) 


Just as if the world, which is a.theatre erected for displaying 
the glory of God, were its own creator! For thus writes the 
same poet in another place, following the common opinion of 
the Greeks and Latins — 


‘¢ Led by such wonders, sages have opined, 
That bees have portions of a heavenly mind ; 
That God pervades, and, like one common soul, 
Fills, feeds, and animates the world’s great whole ; 
That flocks, herds, beasts, and men, from him receive 
Their vital breath ; in him all move and live ; 
That souls discerpt.from him shall never die, 
But back resolved to God and heaven shall fly, 
And live for ever in the starry sky.” (d) 


See the efficacy of that jejune speculation concerning a 
universat mind animating and actuating the world, in the pro- 
duction and encouragement of piety in the human heart. This 
more fully appears also from the profane expressions of the 
filthy Lucretius, which are deductions from the same princi-— 
ple. (e) Its true tendency is to set up a shadowy deity, and 
to banish all ideas of the true God, the proper object of fear and 
worship. I confess, indeed, that the expression, that nature is 
God, may be used ina pious sense by a pious mind; but, as it 
is harsh and inconsistent with strict propriety of speech, nature 
being rather an order prescribed by God, it is dangerous in 
matters so momentous, and demanding peculiar caution, to 
confound the Deity with the inferior course of his works. 

VI. Let us remember, then, in every consideration of our 
own nature, that there is one God, who governs all natures, and 
who expects us to regard him, to direct our faith to him, to 
worship and invoke him. For nothing is more preposterous 
than to enjoy such splendid advantages, which proclaim within 
us their divine origin, and to neglect the Author who bounti- 
fully bestows them.’ Now, what illustrious specimens of his 
power have we to arrest our attention ! unless it be possible 
for us not to know what strength is required to sustain with 
his word this immense fabric of heaven and earth ; now by his 
mere nod to shake the heaven with roaring peals of thunder, 
to consume whatever he choose with lightnings, and set the 
atmosphere on fire with the flame; now to disturb it with 


(c) Mneid vi. Pitt’s Translation. (d) Georg. iv. Warton’s Translation. 
; (e) De Rerum Natur, lib. 1. 


CHAP. v.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 63 


tempests in various forms, and immediately, if he please, to 
compose all to instantaneous serenity ; to restrain, suspended 
as it were in air, the sea, which, by its elevation, seems to 
threaten the earth with continual devastation; now raising it 
in a tremendous manner, by the tumultuous violence of the 
winds, and now appeasing the waves to render it calm. To 
this purpose are the numerous praises of the power of God, 
drawn from the testimonies of nature, particularly in the book 
of Job, and in the prophecies of Isaiah ; which I now pur- 
posely omit, as they will be more suitably introduced, when I 
discuss the scriptural account of the creation of the world. 
Only I wished at present to hint, that this way of seeking God, 
by tracing the lineaments which, both above and below us, ex- 
hibit such a lively adumbration of him, is common to aliens, 
and to those who belong to his family. His power leads us to 
the consideration of his eternity ; because he, from whom all 
things derive their origin, must necessarily be eternal and self- 
existent. . But if we inquire the reason that induced him first 
to create all things, and now to preserve them, we shall find 
the sole cause to be his own goodness. But though this be the 
only cause, it should be more than sufficient to attract us to 
love him; since, according to the Psalmist, (f) there is no 
creature that does not participate in the effusions of his mercy. 

VI. In the second species of his works, such as happen out 
of the ordinary course of nature, the proofs of his perfections 
are equally clear. For he so regulates his providence in the 
government of human society, that, while he exhibits, in innu- 
merable ways, his benignity and beneficence to all, he likewise 
declares, by evident and daily indications, his clemency to the 
pious, and his severity to the wicked and ungodly. For no 
doubt can be entertained respecting his punishment of flagi- 
tious crimes; inasmuch as he clearly demonstrates himself to 
be the guardian and avenger of innocence, in prospering with 
his blessing the life of good men, in assisting their necessi- 
ties, assuaging and comforting their sorrows, alleviating their 
calamities, and providing in all things for their safety. Nor 
should it perplex or eclipse his perpetual rule of righteousness, 
that he frequently permits the wicked and guilty for a time to 
exult in impunity; but suffers good men to be undeservedly 
harassed with much adversity, and even to be oppressed by 
the iniquitous malice of the ungodly. We ought rather to 
make a very different reflection ; that, when he clearly mani- 
fests his wrath in the punishment of one sin, he hates all sins ; 
and that, since he now passes by many sins unpunished, there 
will be a judgment hereafter, till which the punishment is de- 


(f) Psalm cxlv. 9. 


64 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 1. 


ferred. So, also, what, ample occasion he supplies us for the ~ 
consideration of his mercy, while, with unwearied benignity. 
he pursues the miserable, calling them back to himself with 
more than paternal indulgence, till his beneficence overcomes 
their depravity ! 

VIII. To this end the Psalmist, (g¢) mentioning that God, 
in desperate cases, suddenly and wonderfully succors, beyond 
all expectation, those who are miserable and ready to perish, 
either protecting from beasts of prey such as are wandering in 
deserts, and, at length, reconducting them into the right way, 
or supplying with food the needy and hungry, or delivering 
captives from dreary dungeons and iron chains, or bringing the 
shipwrecked safe into port, or healing the diseases of some 
who are almost dead, or scorching the earth with excessive 
heat and drought, or fertilizing it with the secret showers of 
his mercy, or elevating the meanest of the vulgar, or degrading 
nobles from their dignified stations, — the Psalmist, I say, having 
proposed such examples as these, infers from them that what 
are accounted fortuitous accidents, are so many proofs of his 
heavenly providence, especially of his paternal clemency ; and 
that hence the pious have cause to rejoice, while the mouths of 
the impious and reprobate are stopped. But, since the majority 
of men, immersed in their errors, are blind amidst the greatest 
opportunities of seeing, he accounts it a rare instance of sin- 
gular wisdom discreetly to consider these works of God; (h) 
from the sight of which, some, who, in other instances, discover 
the greatest acuteness, receive no benefit. And, notwithstand- 
ing all the displays of the glory of God, scarcely one man in a 
hundred is really a spectator of it. His power and wisdom are 
equally conspicuous. His power is illustriously manifested, 
when the ferocity of the impious, universally deemed insuper- 
able, is quelled in an instant, their arrogance subdued, their 
strongest fortresses demolished, their weapons and armour 
broken in pieces, their strength diminished, their machinations 
confounded, and they fall by their own exertions ; when the 
audacity, which exalted itself above the heavens, is thrown 
down to the centre of the earth ; when, on the contrary, “‘ the 
poor are raised out of the dust, and the needy out of the dung- 
hill;”’ (¢) the oppressed and afflicted extricated from distress- 
ing extremities, and the desperate restored to a good hope; 
when the unarmed are victorious over those who are armed, 
the few over the many, the weak over the strong. But his 
wisdom is eminently displayed in ordering every dispensation 
at the best possible time, confounding the greatest worldly 
sagacity, ‘taking the wise in their own craftiness,”(k) and 


(g) Psalm evii. (zt) Psalm exiii. 7. 
(h) Psalm evii. 43. (A) 1 Cor. iii. 19. 


CHAP. v.| CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 65 


finally disposing all things according to the dictates of the 
highest reason. . 

IX. We see that there is no need of any long or laborious 
argumentation, to obtain and produce testimonies for illustra- 
ting and asserting the Divine Majesty; since, from the few 
which we have selected and cursorily mentioned, it appears 
that they are every where so evident and obvious, as easily to 
be distinguished by the eyes, and pointed out with the fingers. 
And here it must again be observed, that we are invited toa 
knowledge of God; not such as, content with empty specula- 
tion, merely floats in the brain, but such as will be solid and 
fruitful, if rightly received and rooted in our hearts. For the 
Lord is manifested by his perfections : perceiving the influence 
and enjoying the benefits of which, we must necessarily be 
more acutely impressed with such a knowledge, than if we 
imagined a Deity of whose influence we had no perception. 
Whence we conclude this to be the right way, aid the best 
method of seeking God; not with presumptuous curiosity to 
attempt an examination of his essence, which is rather to be 
adored than too curiously investigated; but to contemplate 
him in his works, in which he approaches and familiarizes, 
and, in some measure, communicates himself to us. To this 
the Apostle referred, when he said, that he is not to be sought 
far off, since, by his attribute of omnipresence, he dwells in 
every one of us.(/) ‘Therefore David, having before confessed 
his greatness ineffable, after he descends to the mention of his 
works, adds, that he will “ declare this greatness.” (2) Where- 
fore it becomes us also to apply ourselves to such an investiga- 
tion of God, as may fill our understanding with admiration, 
and powerfully interest our feelings. And, as Augustine some- 
where teaches, being incapable of comprehending him, and 
fainting, as it were, under his immensity, we must take a view 
of his works, that we may be refreshed with his goodness. (7) 

X. Now, such a knowledge ought not only to excite us to 
the worship of God, but likewise to awaken and,arouse us to 
the hope of a future life. For when we consider, that the 
specimens given by the Lord, both of his clemency and of his 
severity, are only begun, and not completed, we certainly 
should esteem these as preludes to greater things, of which - 
the manifestation and full exhibition are deferred to another life. 
When we see that pious men are loaded with afflictions by the 
impious, harassed with injuries, oppressed with calumnies, and 
vexed with contumelious and opprobrious treatment ; that the 
wicked, on the contrary, flourish, prosper, obtain ease and 
dignity, and all with impunity, — we should immediately con- 


(D) Acts xvii. 27. (m) Psalm cxlyv. 6. (n) Aug. in Psal. cxliv. 
VOL. I. eS 


66 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox : 


clude, that there is another life, to which is reserved the ven- 
geance due to iniquity, and the reward of righteousness. 
Moreover, when we observe the faithful frequently chastised 
by the Lord’s rod, we may conclude, with great certainty, that 
the impious shall not always escape his vengeance. For that 
is a wise observation of Augustine — ‘‘ If open punishment were 
now inflicted for every sin, 1t would be supposed that nothing 
would be reserved till the last judgment. Again, if God now 
did not openly punish any sin, it would be presumed that there 
was no divine providence.’ (0) It must therefore be confessed, 
that in each cf the works .of God, but more especially in the 
whole considered together, there is a bright exhibition of the 
divine perfections; by which the whole human race is invited 
and allured to the knowledge of God, and thence to true and 
complete felicity. But, though those perfections are most 
luminously portrayed around us, we only discover their prin- 
cipal tendency, their use, and the end of our contemplation of 
them, when we descend into our own selves, and consider by 
what means God displays in us his hfe, wisdom, and power, 
and exercises towards us his righteousness, goodness, and 
mercy. For, though David justly complains that unbelievers 
are fools, because they consider not the profound designs of 
God in the government of mankind, (p) yet there is much 
truth in what he says in another place —that the wonders of 
Divine Wisdom in this respect exceed in number the hairs of 
our head. (qg) But as this argument must be treated more at 
large in due course, I at present omit it. + 

XI. But, notwithstanding the clear representations given by 
God in the mirror of his works, both of himself and of his 
everlasting dominion, such is our stupidity, that, always in- 
attentive to these obvious testimonies, we derive no advantage 
from them. For, with regard to the structure and very beau- 
tiful organization of the world, how few of us are there, who, 
when lifting up their eyes to heaven, or looking round on the 
various regions of the earth, direct their minds to,the remem- 
brance of the Creator, and do not rather content themselves 
with a view of his works, to the total neglect of their Author! 
And with respect to those things that daily happen out of the 
ordinary course of nature, is it not the general opinion, that 
men are rolled and whirled about by the blind temerity of for- 
tune, rather than governed by the providence of God? Or if, 


by the guidance and direction of these things, we are ever | 


driven (as all men must sometimes be) to the consideration of 
a God, yet, when we have rashly conceived an idea of some 
deity, we soon slide into our own carnal dreams, or depraved 


(0) De Civit. Dei. lib. 1, cap. 8. (p) Psalm xcii. 6. (q) Psalm xl. 12. 


} 
. 


CHAP. V.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 67 


inventions, corrupting by our vanity the purity of divine truth. 
We differ from one another, in that each individual imbibes 
some peculiarity of error; but we perfectly agree in a univer- 
sal departure from the one true’ God, to preposterous trifles. 
This disease affects, not only the vulgar and ignorant, but the 
most eminent, and those who, in other things, discover peculiar 
sagacity. How abundantly have all the philosophers, in this 
respect, betrayed their stupidity and folly! For, to spare others, 
chargeable with greater absurdities, Plato himself, the most re- 
ligious and judicious of them all, loses himself in his round 
globe. (r) And what would not befall others, when their prin- 
cipal men, whose place it was to enlighten the rest, stumble 
upon such gross errors! So also, while the government of 
human actions proves a providence too plainly to admit of a 
denial, men derive no more advantage from it, than if they be- 
lieved all things to be agitated forwards and backwards by 
the uncertain caprice of fortune ; so great is our propensity to 
vanity and error! I speak exclusively of the excellent of man- 
kind, not of the vulgar, whose madness in the profanation of 
divine truth has known no bounds. 

XII. Hence that immense flood of errors, which has deluged 
the whole world. For every man’s understanding is like a 
labyrinth to him; so that it is not to be wondered at, that the 
different nations were drawn aside into various inventions, and 
even that almost every individual had his own particular deity. 
For, amidst the union of temerity and wantonness with igno- 
rance and darkness, scarcely a man could be found who did 
not frame t@ himself some idol or phantasm instead of God. 
Indeed, the immense multitude of gods proceeding from the 
mind of man, resembles the ebullition of waters from a vast 
and ample spring, while every one, with an extreme licentious- 
ness of error, invents one thing or another concerning God 
himself. It is not necessary here to compose a catalogue of 
the superstitions which have perplexed the world ; for it would 
be an endless task; and, without a word more being said, the 
horrible blindness of the human mind sufficiently appears from 
such a multiplicity of corruptions. I pass over the rude and 
unlearned vulgar. But among the philosophers, (s) who at- 
tempted with reason and learning to penetrate heaven, how 
shameful is the diversity! In proportion to the vigour of his 
natural genius, and the polish acquired by art and science, 
each of them seemed to give the more specious colouring to his 
own opinion; but, on a close inspection, you will find them 
a'l fading colours. The Stoics said, in their own opinion very 


(r) Plut. de Philosoph. placitis, Jib. 1.° Platoin Timwo. Cic lib. 1, de Natur. 
Deor. (s) Lactant. Institut. div. 


~ 


68 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 's 


shrewdly, that from all the parts of nature may be collected 
various names of God, but yet that the one God is not therefore 
divided ; (¢) as if we were not already too much inclined to 
vanity, without being further and more violently seduced into 
error, by the notion of such a various abundance of gods. 
The mystical theology of the Egyptians also shows that they 
all sedulously endeavoured to preserve the appearance of reason 
in the midst of their folly.(v) And any thing apparently 
probable might at first sight, perhaps, deceive the simple and - 
incautious; but there: never was any human invention by 
which religion was not basely corrupted. And this confused 
diversity imboldened the Epicureans, and other gross despisers 
of piety, to reject all idea of God. For, seeing the wisest of 
men contending with each other for contrary opinions, they 
hesitated not, from their dissensions, and from the frivolous 
and absurd doctrines maintained by the different parties, to 
infer, that it was vain and foolish for men to torment them- 
selves with investigations concerning God, who does not exist. 
And this they thought they might do with impunity, supposing 
that a compendious denial of any God at all would be better 
than feigning uncertain gods, and thereby occasioning endless 
controversies. They reason very ignorantly, or rather en- 
deavour to conceal their own impiety behind the ignorance 
of men, which not at all justifies any encroachment on God. 
But from the general confession, that there is no subject pro- 
ductive of so many dissensions among the learned as well as 
the unlearned, it is inferred, that the minds of men, which err 
so much in investigations concerning God, are extyemely blind 
and stupid in celestial mysteries. Others commend the an- 
swer of Simonides, (w) who, being asked by Hiero the Tyrant 
what God was, requested a day to consider it. When the 
tyrant, the next day, repeated the inquiry, he begged to be 
allowed two days longer; and, having often doubled the 
number of days, at length answered, ‘The longer I consider 
the subject, the more obscure it appears to me.” He prudently 
suspended his opinion on a subject so obscure to him; yet this 
shows that men, who are taught only by nature, have no cer- 
tain, sound, or distinct knowledge, but are confined to con- 
fused principles; so that they worship an unknown God. 

XIII. Now, it must also be maintained, that whoever adul- 
terates the pure religion, (which must necessarily be the case 
of all who are influenced by their own imagination,) he is 
guilty of a departure from the one God. ‘They will profess, 
indeed, a different intention; hut what they intend, or what 


(t) Seneca, lib. 4, de benef., &c. 
(v) Plutarch. lib. 1, de Isid. & Osirid. Cic. lib. 1, de Nat. Deor. 
(w) Cic. lib. de Nat. Deor. 


CHAP. v.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 69 


they persuade themselves, is of little importance; since the 
Holy Spirit pronounces all to be apostates, who, in the dark- 
ness of their minds, substitute demons in the place of God. 
For this reason Paul declares the Ephesians to have been 
“without God” (z)—till they had learned from the gospel 
the worship of the true God. Nor should this be restricted to 
one nation only, since, in another place, he asserts of men in 
general, that they ‘ became vain in their imaginations,” (y) 
--after the majesty of the Creator had been discovered to them 
in the structure of the world. And therefore the Scripture, 
to make room for the only true God, condemns, as false and 
lying, whatever was formerly worshipped as divine among the 
Gentiles, (z) and leaves no Deity but in Mount Sion, where 
flourished the peculiar: knowledge of God. Indeed, among 
the Gentiles, the Samaritans, in the days of Christ, seemed to 
approach very nearly to true piety; yet we hear, from the 
mouth of Christ, that they ‘worshipped they knew not 
what ;” (a) whence it follows, that they were under a vain 
and erroneous delusion. In fine, though they were not all the 
subjects of gross vices, or open idolaters, there was no pure 
and approved religion, their notions being founded only in 
common sense. For, though there were a few uninfected with 
the madness of the vulgar, this assertion of Paul remains un- 
shaken, that ‘none of the princes of this world knew the wis- 
dom of God.” (b) But if the most exalted have been involved 
in the darkness of error, what must be said of the dregs of the 
people! Wherefore it is not surprising if the Holy Spirit re- 
ject, as spurious, every form of worship which is of human con- 
trivance ; because, in the mysteries of heaven, an opinion ac- 
quired by human means, though it may not always produce 
an immense mass of errors, yet always produces some. And 
though no worse consequencé follow, it is no trivial fault to 
worship, at an uncertainty, an unknown god; of which, how- 
ever, Christ pronounces all to be guilty who have not been 
taught by the law what god they ought to worship. And 
indeed the best legislators have proceeded no further than to 
declare religion to be founded upon common consent. And 
even Socrates, in Xenophon, (c) praises the answer of Apollo, 
which directed that every man should worship the gods ac- 
cording to the rites of his country, and the custom of his own 
city. But whence had mortals this right of determining, by 
their own authority, what far exceeds all the world? or who 
could so acquiesce in the decrees of the rulers or the ordinances 
of the people, as without hesitation to receive a god delivered 


(x) Ephes. ii. 12. (y) Rom. i. 21. (z) Hab. ii. 18, 20. 
@) John iv. 22. (6) 1 Cor. ii. 8. 
(c) Xenoph. de Dict. et Fact. Socrat. lib. 1. Cic. de Legib. lib. 2. 


70 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK 1 


to him by the authority of man? Every man will rather 
abide by his own judgment, than be subject to the will of 
another. Since, then, the following of the custom of a city, 
or the consent of antiquity, in divine worship, is too weak and 
frail a bond of piety, it remains for God himself to give a rev- 
elation concerning himself from heaven. 

XIV. Vain, therefore, is the light afforded us in the for- 
mation of the world to illustrate the glory of its Author; 
which, though its rays be diffused all around us, is insufficient 
to conduct us into the right way. Some sparks, indeed, are 
kindled, but smothered before they have emitted any great 
degree of light. Wherefore the Apostle, in the place before 
cited, says, ‘‘ By faith we understand that the worlds were 
framed by the word of God;” (d) thus intimating, that the 
invisible Deity was represented by such visible objects, yet 
that we have no eyes t6 discern him, unless they be illuminated 
through faith. by an internal revelation of God. Nor does 
_Paul, where he observes, that ‘‘that which may be known of 
God is manifest” (e) in the creation of the world, design such 
a manifestation as human sagacity may comprehend; but 
rather shows, that its utmost extent is to render men inexcusa- 
ble. The same writer also, though in one place (f ) he denies 
that God is to be traced far off, seeing he dwells within 
us, yet teaches, in another place, (g) the consequences of such 
a proximity. God, says he, ‘in times past suffered all nations 
to walk in their own ways. Nevertheless he left not himself 
without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from 
heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and 
gladness.” (h) Though the Lord, then, is not destitute of a 
testimony concerning himself, while with various and most 
abundant benignity he sweetly allures mankind to a knowledge 
of him, yet they persist in following their own ways, their 
pernicious and fatal errors. 

XV. But whatever deficiency of natural ability prevents us 
from attaining the pure and clear knowledge of God, yet, since 
that deficiency arises from our own fault, we are left without 
any excuse. Nor indeed can we set up any pretence of ig- 
norance, that will prevent our own consciences from perpetually 
accusing us of indolence and ingratitude. ‘Truly it would be a 
defence worthy to be admitted, if a man should plead that he 
wanted ears to hear the truth, for the publication of which 
even the mute creatures are supplied with most melodious 
voices; if he should allege that his eyes are not capable of 
seeing what is demonstrated by the creatures without the help 


(d) Heb. xi. 3. (e) Rom. i. 19. (f) Rom. i. 20. 
(g) Acts xvii. 27. (h) Acts xiv. 16, 17. 


CHAP. V1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 71 


of the eyes; if he should plead mental imbecility, while all 
the irrational creatures instruct us. Wherefore we are justly 
excluded from all excuse for our uncertain and extravagant 
deviations, since all things conspire to show us the right way. 
But, however men are chargeable with sinfully corrupting the 
seeds of divine knowledge, which, by the wonderful operation 
of nature, are sown in their hearts, so that they produce no 
good and fair crop, yet it is beyond a doubt, that the simple 
testimony magnificently borne by the creatures to the glory of 
God, is very insufficient for our instruction. For as soon asa 
survey of the world has just shown us a deity, neglecting the 
true God, we set up in his stead the dreams and phantasms of 
our own brains ; and confer on them the praise of righteous- 
ness, wisdom, goodness, and ‘power, due to him. We either 
obscure his daily acts, or pervert them by an erroneous esti- 
mate ; thereby depriving the acts themselves of their glory, and 
their Author of his deserved praise. 


CHAPTER VI. 


* 
THE GUIDANCE AND TEACHING OF THE SCRIPTURE NECESSARY TO 
LEAD TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE CREATOR. 


Tnoveu the light which presents itself to all eyes, both in 
heaven and in earth, is more than sufficient to deprive the in- 
gratitude of men of every excuse, since God, in order to involve 
all mankind in the same guilt, sets before them all, without 
exception, an exhibition of his majesty, delineated in the 
creatures, — yet we need another and better assistance, properly 
to direct us to the Creator of the world: ‘Therefore he hath 
not unnecessarily added the light of his word, to make himself 
known unto salvation, and hath honoured with this privilege 
those whom he intended to unite in a more close and familiar 
connection with himself. For, seeing the minds of all men to 
be agitated with unstable dispositions, when he had chosen 
the Jews as his peculiar flock, he enclosed them as in a fold, 
that they might not wander after the vanities of other nations. 
And it is not without cause that he preserves us in the pure 
knowledge of himself by the same means ; for, otherwise, they 
who seem comparatively to stand firm, would*soon fall. For, 
as persons who are old, or whose eyes are by any means be- 
come dim, if you show ‘them the most beautiful book, though 
they perceive something written, but can scarcely read two 


12 INSTITUTES OF THE | [BOOK 1. 


words together, yet, by the assistance of spectacles, will be- 
gin to read distinctly, —so the Scripture, collecting in our 
minds the otherwise confused notions of Deity, dispels the 
darkness, and gives usaclear view of the true God. This, 
then, is a singular favour, that, in the instruction of the Church, 
God not only uses mute teachers, but even opens his own sa- 
cred mouth; not only proclaims that some god ought to be 
worshipped, but at the same time pronounces himself to be the 
Being to whom this worship is due; and not only teaches the 
elect to raise their view to a Deity, but also exhibits himself 
as the object of their contemplation. ‘This method he hath 
observed toward his Church from the beginning ; beside those 
common lessons of instruction, to afford them also his word ; 
which furnishes a more correct and certain criterion to dis- 
tinguish him from all fictitious deities. And it was undoubt- 
edly by this assistance that Adam, Noah, Abraham, and the 
rest of the patriarchs, attained to that familiar knowledge which 
distinguished them from unbelievers. I speak not yet of the 
peculiar doctrine of faith which illuminated them into the hope 
of eternal life. For, to pass from death to life, they must have 
known God, not only as the Creator, but also as the Redeemer ; 
as they certainly obtained both from his word. For that 
species of knowledge, which related to him as the Creator and 
Governor of the world, in order, preceded the other. ‘To this” 
was afterwards added the other internal knowledge, which 
alone vivifies dead souls, and apprehends God, not only as the 
Creator of the world, and as the sole Author and Arbiter of all 
events, but also as the Redeemer in the person of the Mediator. 
But, being not yet come to the fall of man and the corruption 
of nature, I also forbear to treat of the remedy. Let the reader 
remember, therefore, that I am not yet treating of that covenant 
by which God adopted the children of Abraham, and of that 
point of doctrine by which believers have always been par- 
ticularly separated from the profane nations, since that is 
founded on Christ; but am only showing how we ought to 
learn from the Scripture, that God, who created the world, 
may be certainly distinguished from the whole multitude of 
fictitious deities. The series of subjects will, in due time, lead 
us to redemption. But, though we shall adduce many testi- 
monies from the New Testament, and some also from the Law 
and the Prophets, in which Christ is expressly mentioned, yet 
they will all tend to prove, that the Scripture discovers God to 
us as the Creator of the world, and declares what sentiments we 
should form of him, that we may not be seeking after a deity 
in a labyrinth of uncertainty. 

II. But, whether God revealed himself to the patriarchs by 
oracles and visions, or suggested, by means of the ministry of 


CHAP. VI. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 73 


men, what should be handed down by tradition to their pos- 
terity, it is beyond a doubt that their minds were impressed 
with a firm assurance of the doctrine, so that they were per- 
suaded and convinced that the information they had received 
came from God. For God always secured to his word an un- 
doubted credit, superior ‘to all human opinion. “At Tensth, that 
thé truth ‘might remain in the world in a continual course of 
instruction to all ages, he determined that the same oracles 
which he had deposited with the patriarchs should be commit- 
ted to public records. With this design the Law was promul- 
gated, to which the Prophets were afterwards annexed, as its 
interpreters. — For, though the uses of the law were many, as 
will be better seen in the proper place; and particularly the 
intention of Moses, and of all the prophets, was to teach the 
mode of reconciliation between God and man, (whence also 
Paul calls Christ “the end of the law,’’) (z)—yet I repeat 
again, that, beside the peculiar doctrine of faith and repentance, 
which proposes Christ as the Mediator, the Scripture distin- 
guishes the only true God by certain characters and titles, as 
the Creator and Governor of the world, that he may not be 
confounded with the multitude of false gods. ‘Therefore, 
though every man should seriously apply himself to a consid- 
eration of the works of God, being placed in this very splendid 
theatre to be a spectator of them, yet he ought principally to 
attend to the word, that he may attain superior advantages. 
And, therefore, it is not surprising, that they who are born in 
darkness grow more and more hardened in their stupidity; 
since very few attend to the word of God with teachable dis- 
positions, to restrain themselves within the, limits which it 
prescribes, but rather exult in their own vanity. This, then, 
must be considered as a fixed principle, that, in order to enjoy 
the light of true religion, we ought to begin with the doctrine 
of heaven ; and that no man can “have the least knowledge of 
true and sound doctrine, without having been a disciple of the 
Scripture. Hence originates all true wisdom, when we em- 
brace with reverence the testimony which God hath ‘been 
pleased therein to deliver concerning himself. For obedience 
is the source, not only of an absolutely perfect and complete 
faith, but of all right knowledge of God. And truly in this 
instance God hath, in his providence, particularly consulted 
the true interests of mankind in all ages. 

Ill. For, if we consider the mutability of the human mind, — 
how easy its lapse into forgetfulness of God ; how great its pro- 
pensity to errors of every kind; how violent its rage for the 
perpetual fabrication of new and false religions, — it will be easy 


(t) Rom. x. 4. 
VOL. I. 10 


74, INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK I. 


to perceive the necessity of the heavenly doctrine being thus 
committed to writing, that it might not be lost in oblivion, or 
evaporate in error, or be corrupted by the presumption of men. 
Since it is evident, therefore, that God, foreseeing the in- 
efficacy of his manifestation of himself in the exquisite siruc- 
ture of the world, hath afforded the assistance of his word to 
all those to whom he determined to make his instructions 
effectual, — if we seriously aspire to a sincere contemplation of 
God, it is necessary for us to pursue this right way. We must 
come, I say, to the word, which contains a just and lively de- 
scription of God as he appears in his works, when those works 
are estimated, not according to our depraved judgment, but by 
the rule of eternal truth. If we deviate from it, as I have just 
observed, though we run with the utmost celerity, yet, being 
out of the course, we shall never reach the goal. For it must 
be concluded, that the light of the Divine countenance, which 
even the Apostle says ‘‘no man can approach unto,”’ (7) is like 
an inexplicable labyrinth to us, unless we are directed by the 
line of the word; so that it were better to halt in this way, 
than to run with the greatest rapidity out of it. Therefore 
David, inculcating the necessity of the removal of superstitions 
out of the world, that pure religion may flourish, frequently 
introduces God as ‘ reigning ;’’(k) by the word “ reigning,” 
intending, not the power which he possesses, and which he 
exercises in the universal government of nature, but the doc- 
trine in which he asserts his legitimate sovereignty ; because 
errors can never be eradicated from the human heart, till the 
true knowledge of God is implanted in it. 

IV. Therefore the same Psalmist, having said, that ,‘‘ the 
heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth 
his handy-work; day unto day uttereth speech, and night 
unto night showeth knowledge,” (2) afterwards proceeds to the 
mention of the word: “‘The law of the Lord is perfect, con- 
verting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making 
wise the simple: the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing 
the heart : the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening 
the eyes.’’ For, though he also comprehends other uses of the 
law, yet he suggests, in general, that, since God’s invitation of 
all nations to him by the view of heaven and earth is ineffec- 
tual, this is the peculiar school of the children of God. The 
same is adverted to in the twenty-ninth Psalm, where the 
Psalmist, having preached the terrors of the Divine voice 
which in thunders, in winds, in showers, in whirlwinds, and 
in tempests, shakes the earth, makes the mountains tremble, 
and breaks the cedars, adds, at length, towards the close, “ in 


(7) DT im svi he (k) Ps. xciii. xevi., &c. (1) Ps. xix. 1, &c. 


CHAP. VII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 75 


his temple doth every one speak of his glory ;”’ because unbe- 
lievers are deaf to all the voices of God, which resound in the 
air. So, in another Psalm, after describing the terrible waves 
of the sea, he concludes thus: ‘‘ Thy testimonies are very sure: 
holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever.” (m) Hence 
also proceeds the observation of Christ to the Samaritan wo- 
man, that her nation and all others worshipped they knew not 
what ; and that the Jews were the only worshippers of the 
true God. (7) For, since the human mind is unable, through 
its imbecility, to attain any knowledge of God without the as- 
sistance of his sacred word, all mankind, except the Jews, as 
they sought God without the word, must necessarily have been 
wandering in vanity and error. 


CHAPTER VII. 


THE TESTIMONY OF THE SPIRIT NECESSARY TO CONFIRM THE SCRIP- 
TURE, IN ORDER TO THE COMPLETE ESTABLISHMENT OF ITS AU- 
THORITY. THE SUSPENSION OF ITS AUTHORITY ON THE JUDG- 
MENT OF THE CHURCH, AN IMPIOUS FICTION. 


Berore I proceed any further, it is proper to introduce some 
remarks on the authority of the Scripture, not only to prepare 
the mind to regard it with due reverence, but also to remove 
every doubt. For, when it is admitted to be a declaration of 
the word of God, no man can be so deplorably presumptuous, 
unless he be also destitute of common sense and of the com- 
mon feelings of men, as to dare to derogate from the credit 
due to the speaker. But since we are not favoured with daily 
oracles from heaven, and since it is only in the Scriptures that 
the Lord hath been pleased to preserve his truth in perpetual 
remembrance, it obtains the same complete credit and au- 
thority with believers, when they are satisfied of its divine 
origin, as if they heard the very words pronounced by God 
himself. The subject, indeed, merits a diffuse discussion, and 
a most accurate examination. But the reader will pardon me, 
if I attend rather to what the design of this work admits, than 
to what the extensive nature of the present subject requires. 
But there has very generally prevailed a most pernicious error, 
that the Scriptures have only so much weight as is conceded 
to them by the suffrages of the Church; as though the eternal 


(m) Ps. xciil. 5. (n) John iv. 22. 


76 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1. 


and inviolable truth of God depended on the arbitrary will of 
men. For thus, with great contempt of the Holy Spirit, they 
inquire, Who can assure us that God is the author of them? 
Who can with certainty affirm, that they have been preserved 
safe and uncorrupted to the present age? Who can persuade 
us that this book ought to be received with reverence, and 
that expunged from the sacred number, unless all these things 
were regulated by the decisions of the Church? It depends, 
therefore, (say they,) on the determination of the Church, to 
decide both what reverence is due to the Scripture, and what 
books are to be comprised in its canon. ‘Thus sacrilegious 
men, while they wish to introduce an unlimited tyranny, 
under the’ name of the Church, are totally unconcerned with 
what absurdities they embarrass themselves and others, pro- 
vided they can extort from the ignorant this one admission, 
that the Church can do every thing. But, if this be true, 
what will be the condition of those wretched consciences, 
which are seeking a solid assurance of eternal life, if all the 
promises extant concerning it rest only on the judgment of 
men? Will the reception of such an answer cause their 
fluctuations to subside, and their terrors to vanish? Again, 
how will the impious ridicule our faith, and all men call it in 
question, if it be understood to possess only a precarious au- 
thority depending on the favour of men! 7 

II. But such cavillers are completely refuted even by one 
word of the Apostle. He testifies that the church is “ built 
upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.” (0) If the 
doctrine of the prophets and apostles be the foundation of the 
Church, it must have been certain, antecedently to the exist- 
ence of the Church. Nor is there any foundation for this 
cavil, that though the Church derive its origin from the Scrip- 
tures, yet it remains doubtful what writings are to be ascribed 
to the prophets and apostles, unless it be determined by the 
Church. For if the Christian Church has been from the be- 
sinning founded on the writings of the prophets and the 
preaching of the apostles, wherever that doctrine is found, the 
approbation of it has certainly preceded the formation of the 
Church ; since without it the Church itself had never existed. 
It is a very false notion, therefore, that the power of judging 
of the Scripture belongs to the Church, so as to make the cer- 
tainty of it dependent on the Church’s will. Wherefore, when 
the Church receives it, and seals it with her suffrage, she does 
not authenticate a thing otherwise dubious or controvertible ; 
but, knowing it to be the truth of her God, performs a duty 
of piety, by treating it with immediate veneration. But, with 
-egard to the question, How shall we be persuaded of its divine 


(0) Eph. ii. 20. 


CHAP. VII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. Te 


original, unless we have recourse to the decree of the Church? 
this is just as if any one should inquire, How shall we learn 
to distinguish light from darkness, white from black, sweet 
from bitter? For the Scripture exhibits as clear evidence of 
its truth, as white and black things do of their colour, or sweet 
and bitter things of their taste. 

Ilf. I know, indeed, that they commonly cite the opinion 
of Augustine, where he says, ‘‘ that he would not believe the 
Gospel unless he were influenced by the authority of the 
Church.” (p) But how falsely and unfairly this is cited in 
support of such a notion, it is easy to discover from the con- 
text. He was in that contending with the Manichees, who 
wished to be credited, without any controversy, when they 
affirmed the truth to be on their side, but never proved it. 
Now, as they made the authority of the Gospel a pretext in 
order to establish the credit of their Manicheus, he inquires 
what they would do if they met with a man who did not be- 
lieve the Gospel; with what kind of persuasion they would 
convert him to their opinion. He afterwards adds, “ Indeed, 
I would not give credit to the Gospel,’’ &c., intending, that he 
himself, when an alien from the faith, could not be prevailed 
on to embrace the Gospel as the certain truth of, God, till he 
was convinced by the authority of the Church. And is it sur- 
prising that any one, yet destitute of the knowledge of Christ, 
should pay a respect to men? Augustine, therefore, dves not 
there maintain that the faith of the pious is founded on the 
authority of the Church, nor does he mean that the certainty 
of the Gospel depends on it; but simply, that unbelievers 
would have no assurance of the truth of the Gospel, that 
would win them to Christ, unless they were influenced by the 
consent of the Church. And a little before, he clearly con- 
firms it in these words: ‘‘ When I shall have commended my 
own creed, and derided yours, what judgment, think you, 
ought we to form, what conduct ought we to pursue, but to 
forsake those who invite us to acknowledge things that are 
certain, and afterwards command us to believe things that are 
uncertain ; and to follow those who invite us first to believe 
what we cannot yet clearly see, that, being strengthened by 
faith, we may acquire an understanding of what we believe ; 
our mind being now internally strengthened and illuminated, 
not by men, but by God himself?’’ 'These are the express 
words of Augustine ; whence the inference is obvious to every 
one, that this holy man did not design to suspend our faith in 
the Scriptures on the arbitrary decision of the Church, but 
only to show (what we all confess to be true) that they who 


(p) Contr. Epist Fundam. cap. 5. 


78 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK 


are yet unilluminated by the Spirit of God, are, by a reverence 
for the Church, brought to such a docility as to submit to learn 
the faith of Christ from the Gospel; and that thus the au- 
thority of the Church is an introduction to prepare us for the 
faith of the Gospel. For we see that he will have the cer- 
tainty of the pious to rest on a very different foundation. 
Otherwise I do not deny his frequently urging on the Man- 
ichees the universal consent of the Church, with a view to 
prove the truth of the Scripture, which they rejected. Whence 
his rebuke of Faustus, ‘‘ for not submitting to the truth of the 
Gospel, so founded, so established, so gloriously celebrated, 
and delivered through certain successions from the apostolic 
age.”’ But he nowhere insinuates that the authority which 
We attribute to the Scripture depends on the definitions or de- 
crees of men: he only produces the universal judgment of the 
Church, which was very useful to his argument, and gave him 
an advantage over his adversaries. If any one desire a fuller 
proof of this, let him read his treatise ‘‘ Of the Advantage of 
Believing ;”’ where he will find, that he recommends no other 
facility of believing, than such as may afford us an introduc- 
tion, and be a proper beginning of inquiry, as he expresses 
himself; yet. that we should not be satisfied with mere opin-. 
ion, but rest upon certain and solid truth. 

IV. It must be maintained, as I have before asserted, that 
we are not established in the belief of the doctrine till we are 
/indubitably persuaded that God is its Author. ‘The principal 
‘ proof, therefore, of the Scriptures is every where derived from 
the character of the Divine Speaker. The prophets and apos- 
tles boast not of their own genius, or any of those talents 
which conciliate the faith of the hearers; nor do they insist 
on arguments from reason ; but bring forward the sacred name 
of God, to compel the submission of the whole world. We 
must now see how it appears, not from probable supposition, 
but from clear demonstration, that this use of the divine name 
is neither rash nor fallacious. Now, if we wish to consult the 
true interest of our consciences ; that they may not be unstable 
and wavering, the subjects of perpetual doubt; that they may 
‘ not hesitate at the smallest scruples, — this persuasion must be 
sought from a higher source than human reasons, or judg- 
ments, or conjectures —even from the secret testimony of the 
Spirit. It is true that, if we were inclined to argue the point, 
many things might be adduced which certainly evince, if there 
be any God in heaven, that he is the Author of the Law, and 
the Prophecies, and the Gospel. Even though men of learn- 
ing and deep judgment rise up in opposition, and exert and 
display all the powers of their minds in this dispute, yet, un- 
less they are wholly lost to all sense of shame, this confession 


CHAP. vit.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 79 


will be extorted from them, that the Scripture exhibits the 
“manifests its ‘doctrine to be divine. And we shall soon see, 
that all the books of the sacred Scripture very far excel all 
other writings. If we read it with pure eyes and sound minds, 
we shall immediately perceive the majesty of God, which will 
subdue our audacious contradictions, and compel us to obey 
him. Yet it is acting a preposterous part, to endeavour to 
produce sound faith in the Scripture by disputations. Though, 
indeed, I am far from excelling in peculiar dexterity or elo- 
quence, yet, if I were to contend with the most subtle de- 
spisers of God, who are ambitious to display their wit and 
their skill in weakening the authority of Scripture, I trust 
I should be able, without difficulty, to silence their obstreper- 
ous clamour. And, if it were of any use to attempt a refutation 
of their cavils, lI would easily demolish the boasts which they 
mutter in secret corners. But though any one vindicates the 
sacred word of God from the aspersions of men, yet this will 
not fix in their hearts that assurance which is essential to true 
piety. Religion, appearing, to profane men, to consist wholly 
In opinion, in order that they may not believe any thing on 
foolish or slight grounds, they wish and expect it to be proved 
by rational arguments, that Moses and the prophets spake by 
divine inspiration. But I reply, that the testimony of the 
Spirit is superior to all reason. For, as God alone is a suf- 
ficient witness of himself in his own word, so also the word 
will never gain credit in the hearts of men, till it be confirmed 
by the internal testimony of the Spirit. It is necessary, there- 
fore, that the same Spirit, who spake by the mouths of the 
prophets, should penetrate into our hearts, to convince us that 
they faithfully delivered the oracles which were divinely in- 
trusted to them. And this connection is very suitably ex-~ 
pressed in these words: “ My Spirit that is upon thee, and 
my word which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out 
of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the 
mouth of thy seed’s seed, for ever.” (q¢) Some good men are 
troubled that they are not always prepared with clear proof to 
oppose the impious, when they murmur with impunity against 
the divine word; as though the Spirit were not therefore 
denominated a “ seal,” and ‘an earnest,” for the confirmation 
of the faith of the pious; because, till he illuminate their 
minds, they are perpetually fluctuating amidst a multitude 
of doubts. 

VY. Let it be considered, then, as an undeniable truth, that 
they who have been inwardly taught by the Spirit, feel an 


((q) Isaiah lix. 21. 


80 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK I, 


entire acquiescence in the Scripture, and that it is self-authen- 
ticated, carrying with it its own evidence, and ought not to be 
made the subject of demonstration and arguments from reason ; 
but it obtains the credit which it deserves with us by the tes- 
timony of the Spirit. For though it conciliate our reverence 
by its internal majesty, it never seriously affects us till it is 
confirmed by the Spirit in our hearts. ‘Therefore, being il- 
luminated by him, we now believe the divine original of the 
Scripture, not from our own judgment or that of others, but 
we esteem the certainty, that we have received it from God’s 
own mouth by the ministry of men, to be superior to that of 
any human judgment, and equal to that of an intuitive percep- 
tion of God himself in it. We seek not arguments or proba- 
bilities to support our judgment, but submit our judgments and 
understandings as to a thing concerning which it is impossible 
for us to judge; and that not like some persons, who are in 
the habit of hastily embracing what they do not understand, 
which displeases them as soon as they examine it, but because 
we feel the firmest conviction that we hold an invincible truth ; 
nor like those unhappy men who surrender their minds cap- 
tives to superstitions, but because we perceive in it the un- 
doubted energies of the Divine power, by which we are at- 
tracted and inflamed to an understanding and voluntary 
obedience, but with a vigour and efficacy superior to the 
power of any human will or knowledge. With the greatest 
justice, therefore, God exclaims by Isaiah, (7) that the prophets 
and all the people were his witnesses ; because, being taught 
by prophecies, they were certain that God had spoken without 
the least fallacy or ambiguity. It is sucha persuasion, there- 
| fore, as requires no reasons ; such a knowledge as is supported 
‘by the highest reason, in which, indeed, the mind rests with 
‘greater security and constancy than in any reasons; it is, 
‘finally, such a sentiment as cannot be produced but by a 
revelation from heaven. I speak of nothing but what every 
believer experiences in his heart, except that my language 
falls far short of a just explication of the subject. I pass over 
many things at present, because this subject will present itself 
_ for discussion again in another place. Only let it be known 
here, that that alone is true faith which the Spirit of God seals 
in our hearts. And with this one reason every reader of 
modesty and docility will be satisfied: Isaiah predicts that 
“all the children” of the renovated Church ‘shall be taught 
of God.” (s) Herein God deigns to confer a singular privilege 
on his elect, whom he distinguishes from the rest of mankind. 
For what is the beginning of true learning but a prompt alac- 


(r) Isaiah xliii. 10. (s) Isaiah liv. 13. 


CHAP. VIII. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 81 


rity to hear the voice of God? By the mouth of Moses he 
demands our attention in these terms: ‘Say not in thine 
heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? or, Who shall descend 
into the deep? ‘The word is even in thy mouth.” (¢) If God 
hath determined that this treasury of wisdom shall be reserved 
for his children, it is neither surprising nor absurd, that we see 
so much ignorance and stupidity among the vulgar herd of 
mankind. By this appellation I designate even those of the 
greatest talents and highest rank, till they are incorporated 
into the Church. Moreover, Isaiah, observing that the pro- 
phetical doctrine would be incredible, not only to aliens, but 
also to the Jews, who wished to be esteemed members of the 
family, adds, at the same time, the reason — Because the arm of 
the Lord will not be revealed to all. (v) Whenever, therefore, 
we are disturbed at the paucity of believers, let us, on the other 
hand, remember tliat none, but those to whom it was given, 
have any apprehension of the mysteries of God. 


CHAPTER VIII. 
RATIONAL PROOFS TO ESTABLISH THE BELIEF OF THE SCRIPTURE. 


Wirnovt this certainty, better and stronger than any human 
judgment, in vain will the authority of the Scripture be either 
defended by arguments, or established by the consent of the 
Church, or confirmed by any other supports; since, unless the 
foundation be laid, it remains in perpetual suspense. Whilst, 
on the contrary, when, regarding it in a different point of view 
from common things, we have once religiously received it in a 
manner worthy of its excellence, we shall then derive great 
assistance from things which before were not sufficient to es- 
tablish the certainty of it in our minds. For it is admirable 
to observe how much it conduces to our confirmation, atten- 
tively to study the order and disposition of the Divine Wisdom 
dispensed.in it, the heavenly nature of its doctrine, which never 
savours of any thing terrestrial, the beautiful agreement of all 
the parts with each other, and other similar characters adapted 
to conciliate respect to any writings. But our hearts are more 
strongly confirmed, when we reflect that we are constrained to 
admire it more by the dignity of the subjects than by the 
beauties of the language. For even this did not happen with- 
out the particular providence of God, that the sublime mys- 


(t) Deut. xxx. Rom. x. (v) Isaiah li. 1. 
VOL. I. 11 


82 . INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 1. 


teries of the kingdom of heaven should be communicated, for 
the most part, in a humble and contemptible style ; lest, if they 
had been illustrated with more of the splendour of eloquence, 
the impious might cavil that their triumph is only the triumph 
of eloquence. Now, since that uncultivated and almost rude 
simplicity procures itself more reverence than all the graces 
of rhetoric, what opinion can we form, but that the force of 
truth in the sacred Scripture is too powerful to need the as- 
sistance of verbal art? Justly, therefore, does the apostle 
argue that the faith of. the Corinthians was founded, “not in 
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God,” because his 
preaching among them was, “not with enticing words of 
man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of 
power.” (x) For the truth is vindicated from every doubt, 
when, unassisted by foreign aid, it is sufficient for its own 
support. But that this is the peculiar property of the Scripture, 
appears from the insufficiency of any human compositions, 
however artificially polished, to make an equal impression on 
our minds. Read Demosthenes or Cicero; read Plato, Aris- 
totle, or any others of that class; I grant that you will be at- 
tracted, delighted, moved, and enraptured by them in a sur- 
prising manner; but if, after reading them, you turn to the 
perusal of the sacred volume, whether you are willing or un- 
willing, it will affect you so powerfully, it will so penetrate 
your heart, and impress itself so strongly on your mind, that, 
compared with its energetic influence, the beauties of rhetori- 
cians and philosophers will almost entirely disappear ; so that 
it is easy to perceive something divine in the sacred Scriptures, 
which far surpasses the highest attainments and ornaments of 
human industry. ‘ 

II. I grant, indeed, that the diction of some of the prophets 
is neat and elegant, and even splendid ; so that they are not 
inferior in eloquence to the heathen writers. And by such 
examples the Holy Spirit hath been pleased to show, that he 
was not deficient in eloquence, though elsewhere he hath used 
a rude and homely style. But whether we read David, Isaiah, 
and others that resemble them, who have a sweet and pleasant 
flow of words, or Amos the herdsman, Jeremiah, and Zecha- 
riah, whose rougher language savours of rusticity, — that majesty 
of the Spirit, which I have mentioned, is every where con- 
spicuous. Iam not ignorant that Satan in many things im- 
itates God, in order that, by the fallacious resemblance, he 
may more easily insinuate himself into the minds of the sim- 
ple ; and has therefore craftily disseminated, in unpolished and 
even barbarous language, the most impious errors, by which 


(z) 1 Cor. ii. 4. 


CHAP. VIII. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 83 


multitudes have been miserably deceived, and has often used 
obsolete forms of speech as a mask to. conceal his impostures. 


~ But the vanity and fraud of such affectation are visible to all 


men of moderate understanding. With respect to the sacred 
Scripture, though presumptuous men try to cavil at various 
passages, yet it is evidently replete with sentences which are | 
beyond the powers of human conception. Let all the prophets 
be examined ; not one will be found, who has not far surpassed 
the ability of men; so that those to whom their doctrine is 
insipid must be accounted utterly destitute of all true taste. 

Ill. This argument has been copiously treated by other 
writers ; wherefore it may suffice at present merely to hint at 
a few things which chiefly relate to the subject in a general 
view. Beside what I have already treated on, the antiquity 
of the Scripture is of no small weight. For, notwithstanding 
the fabulous accounts of the. Greek writers concerning the 
Egyptian theology, yet there remains no monument of any 
religion, but what is much lower than the age of Moses. Nor 
does Moses invent a new deity; he only makes a declaration 
of what the Israelites had, through a long series of years, re- 
ceived by tradition from their forefathers concerning the eternal 
God. For what does he aim at, but to recall them to the 
covenant made with Abraham? If he had advanced a thing 
till then unheard of, it would not have been received ; but 
their liberation from the servitude in which they were detained 
must have been a thing well known to them all; so that the 
mention of it immediately excited universal attention. It is 
probable also that they had been informed of the number of 
four hundred years. Now, we must consider, if Moses (who 
himself preceded all other writers by such a long distance of 
time) derives the tradition of his doctrine from so remote a 
beginning, how much the sacred Scripture exceeds in antiquity 
all other books. 

IV. Unless any would choose to credit the Egyptians, who 
extend their antiquity to six thousand years before the creation 
of the world. But since their garrulity has been ridiculed 
even by all the profane writers, I need. not trouble myself 
with refuting it. Josephus, in his book against Appion, cites 
from the most ancient writers testimonies worthy of being re- 
membered ; whence we may gather, that the doctrine contained 
in the law has, according to the consent of all nations, been 
renowned from the remotest ages, although it was neither read 
nor truly understood. Now, that the malicious might have no 
room for suspicion, nor even the wicked any pretence for 
cavilling, God hath provided the most excellent remedies for 
both these dangers. When Moses relates what Jacob had, 
almost three hundred years before, by the spirit of inspiration 


84: INSTITUTES OF THE [EOOK 1. 


pronounced concerning his posterity, how does he disgrace his» 
own tribe! He even brands it, in the person of Levi, with 
perpetual infamy. ‘‘Simeon,” says he, ‘‘and Levi, instru- 
ments of cruelty are in their habitations. O my soul, come 
not thou into their secret: unto their assembly, mine honour, 
be not thou united.” (y) He certainly might have been silent 
on that disgraceful circumstance, not only to spare his father, 
but also to avoid aspersing himself, as well as all his family, 
with part of the same ignominy. How can any suspicion he 
entertained of him, who, voluntarily publishing, from the in- 
spiration of the Holy Spirit, that the first of the family from 
which he was descended was guilty of detestable conduct, 
neither consults his own personal honours, nor refuses to incur 
the resentment of his relations, to whom this must undoubtedly 
have given offence? When he mentions also the impious 
murmurings of Aaron, his brother, and Miriam, his sister, (2) 
shall we say that he spake according to the dictates of the 
flesh, or obeyed the command of the Holy Spirit? Besides, 
as he enjoyed the supreme authority, why did he not leave to 
his own sons, at least, the office of the high-priesthood, but 
place them in the lowest station? I only hint at a few things 
out of many. But in the law itself many arguments will 
every where occur, which challenge a full belief, that, without 
controversy, the legation of Moses was truly divine. 

V. Moreover, the miracles which he relates, and which are 
so numerous and remarkable, are so many confirmations of the 
law which he delivered, and of the doctrine which he pub- 
lished. For that he was carried up into the mountain in a 
cloud ; that he continued there forty days, deprived of all hu 
man intercourse; that, in the act of proclaiming the law, his 
face shone as with the rays of the sun; that lightnings flashed 
all around; that thunders and various noises were heard 
through the whole atmosphere ; that a trumpet sounded, but 
a trumpet not blown by human breath; that the entrance of 
the tabernacle was concealed from the view of the people by 
an intervening. cloud; that his authority was so miraculously 
vindicated by the horrible destruction of Korah, Dathan, and 
Abiram, and all their impious faction; that a rock smitten 
with a rod immediately emitted a river; that manna rained 
from heaven at his request ; (a) —are not all these so many tes- 
timonies from heaven of his being a true prophet? If any one 
object that I assume, as granted, things which are the subjects 
of controversy, this cavil is easily answered. For, as Moses 
published all these things in an assembly of the people, what 
room was there for fiction among those who had been eye- 


(y) Gen. xlix. 5. (z) Num. xii. 1. 
(a) Exod. xxiv. 18; xxxiv.29; xix. 16; xl.34. Num. xvi. 24, &c.; xx. 11; xi. 9. 


CHAP. vIit.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 85 


witnesses of the events? Is it probable that he would make 
his appearance in public, and, accusing the people of infidelity, 
contumacy, ingratitude, and other crimes, boast that his doc- 
trine had been confirmed in their sight by miracles which they 
had never seen ? 

VI. For this also is worthy of being remarked, that all his 
accounts of miracles are connected with such unpleasant cir- 
cumstances, as were calculated to stimulate all the people, if 
there had been but the smallest occasion, to a public and pos- 
itive contradiction ; whence it appears, that they were induced 
to coincide with him only by the ample conviction of their 
own experience. But since the matter was too evident for 
profane writers to take the liberty of denying the performanée 
of miracles by Moses, the father of lies has suggested the 
calumny of ascribing them to magical arts. But by what 
kind of conjecture can they pretend to charge him with having 
been a magician, who had so great an abhorrence of that su- 
perstition, as to command, that he who merely consulted 
magicians and soothsayers should be stoned?(b) Certainly 
no impostor practises such juggling tricks, who does not make 
it his study, for the sake of acquiring fame, to astonish the 
minds of the vulgar. But what is the practice of Moses? 
Openly avowing that himself and his brother Aaron are noth- 
ing, (c) but that they only execute the commands of God, he 
sufficiently clears his character from every unfavourable as- 
persion. Now, if the events themselves be considered, what 
incantation could cause manna to rain daily from heaven suf- 
ficient to support the people, and, if any one laid up more 
than the proper quantity, cause it to putrefy, as a punishment 
from God for his unbelief? Add also the many serious ex- 
aminations which God permitted his servant to’ undergo, so 
that the clamour of the wicked can now be of no avail. For 
as often as this holy servant of God was in danger of being 
destroyed, at one time by proud and petulant insurrections of 
all the people, at another by the secret conspiracies of a few, 
—- how was it possible for him to elude their inveterate rage by 
any arts of deception? And the event evidently proves, that 
by these circumstances his doctrine was confirmed to all suc- 
ceeding ages. 

VII. Moreover, who can deny that his assigning, in the 
person of the patriarch Jacob, the supreme power to the tribe 
of Judah, proceeded from a spirit of prophecy, (d) especially 
if we consider the eventual accomplishment of this prediction ? 
Suppose Moses to have been the first author of it; yet after 
he committed it to writing, there elapsed four hundred years 


(b) Lev. xx. 6. (c) Exod. xvi. 7, (d) Gen. xlix. 10. 


86 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox x. 


in which we have no mention of the sceptre in the tribe of 
Judah. After the inauguration of Saul, the regal power 
seemed to be fixed in the tribe of Benjamin. When Samuel 
anointed David, what reason appeared for transferring it: 
Who would have expected a king to arise out of the plebeian 
family of a herdsman? And of seven brothers, who would 
have conjectured that such an honour was destined for the 
youngest? And by what means did he attain a hope of the 
kingdom? Who can assert that this unction was directed by 
human art, or industry, or prudence, and was not rather a 
completion of the prediction of heaven? And in like manner 
do not his predictions, although obscure, concerning the ad- 
mission of the Gentiles into the covenant of God, which were 
accomplished almost two thousand years after, clearly prove 
him to have spoken under a divine inspiration? I omit other 
predictions, which so strongly savour of a divine inspiration, 
that all who have the use of their reason must perceive that it 
is God who speaks. In short, one song of his is a clear mirror 
in which God evidently appears. (e) 

VIII. But in the other prophets this is yet far more con- 
spicuous. I shall only select a few examples ; for to collect 
all would be too laborious. When, in the time of Isaiah, the 
kingdom of Judah was in peace, and even when they thought 
themselves safe in the alliance of the Chaldeans, Isaiah pub- 
licly spake of the destruction of the city and the banishment 
of the people. (f) Now, even if to predict long before things 
which then seemed false, but have since appeared to be true, 
were not a sufficiently clear proof of a divine inspiration, to 
whom but God shall we ascribe the prophecies which he ut- 
tered concerning their deliverance? He mentions the name 
of Cyrus, by whom the Chaldeans were to be subdued, and 
the people restored to liberty.(g@) More than a century 
elapsed after this prophecy before the birth of Cyrus; for 
he was not born till about the hundredth year after the proph- 
et’s death. No man could then divine, that there would be 
one Cyrus, who would engage in a war with the Babylonians, 
who would subjugate such a powerful monarchy, and release 
the people of Israel from exile. Does not this bare narration, 
without any ornaments of diction, plainly demonstrate that 
Isaiah delivered the undoubted oracles of God, and not the 
conjectures of men? Again, when Jeremiah, just before the 
people were carried away, limited the duration of their cap- 
tivity to seventy years, and predicted their liberation and 
return, must not his tongue have been under the direction of 
the Spirit of God?(h) What impudence must it be to deny 


(e) Deut. xxxii. : (g) Isaiah xlv. 1. 
(f) Isaiah xxxix. 6. (4) Jer. xxv. 11, 12. 


. 
| 


CHAP. VIII] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. | 87 


that the authority of the prophets has been confirmed by such 
proofs, or that what they themselves assert, in order to vin- 
dicate the credit due to their declarations, has been actually 
fulfilled! ‘* Behold, the former things are come to pass, and 
new things do I declare: before they spring forth, I tell you 
of them.” (7) I shall not speak of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, who, 
living in distant countries, but prophesying at the same time, 
so exactly accord in their declarations, as though they had 
mutually dictated the words to each other. What shall we 
say of Daniel? Has not he prophesied of the events of nearly 
six hundred years in such a connected series, as if he were 
composing a history of transactions already past and universally 
known? If pious men properly consider these things, they 
will be sufficiently prepared to curb the petulance of the 
wicked ; for the demonstration is too clear to be liable to any 
cavils. 

IX. I know what is objected by some clamorous men, who 
would ostentatiously display the force of their understanding in ° 
opposing divine truth. For they inquire, Who has assured us 
that Moses and the prophets actually wrote those books which 
bear their names? They even dare to question whether such a 
man as Moses ever existed. But if any man should call in 
question the existence of Plato, or Aristotle, or Cicero, who 
would deny that such madness ought to receive corporal pun- 
ishment? The law of Moses has been wonderfully preserved, 
rather by the providence of heaven than by the endeavours of 
men. And though, through the negligence of the priests, it lay 
for a short time concealed, since it was found by the pious king 
Josiah, it has continued in the hands of men through every 
succeeding age.(k) Nor, indeed, did Josiah produce it as a 
thing unknown or new, but as what had always been public, 
and the memory of which was then famous. The protograph 
had been appointed to be kept in the temple, and a transcript of 
it to be deposited in the royal archives ; (/) only the priests had 
discontinued their ancient custom of publishing the law, and 
the people themselves had neglected their wonted reading of it : 
yet there scarcely passed an age in which its sanction was not 
confirmed and renewed. Were they, who had the writings of 
David, ignorant of Moses? But, to speak of all at once, it is 
certain, that their writings descended to posterity only from 
hand to hand, (so to speak,) through a long series of years trans- 
mitted from the fathers, who partly had heard them speak, and 
partly learned from others who heard them, while it was fresh 
in their memory, that they had thus spoken. 

X. With regard to what they object from the history of the 


(t) Isaiah xlii. 9. (k) 2 Kings xxii. 8. (1) Deut. xvii. 18. 


88 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 1. 


Maccabees, to diminish the credit of the Scripture, nothing 
could be conceived more adapted to establish it: But first let us 
divest it of their artificial colouring, and then retort upon them 
the weapon which they direct against us. When Antiochus, 
say they, commanded all the books to be burned, whence pro- 
ceeded the copies which we now have? I, on the contrary, 
inquire, where they could so speedily be fabricated. For 
jt is evident, that, as. soon as the persecution subsided, 
they immediately appeared, and were, without controversy, 
acknowledged as the same by all pious men; who, having 
been educated in their doctrine, had been familiarly ac- 
quainted with them. Nay, even when all the impious, as 
if by a general conspiracy, so wantonly insulted the Jews, 
no man ever dared to charge them with forging their books. 
For, whatever be their opinion of the Jewish religion, yet they 
confess that Moses was the author of it. What, then, do 
these clamorous objectors, but betray their own consummate 
impudence, when they slander, as supposititious, books whose 
sacred antiquity is confirmed by the consent of all histories? 
But, to waste no more useless labour in refuting such stale cal- 
umnies, let us rather consider how carefully the Lord preserved 
his own word, when, beyond all hope, he rescued it from the 
fury of the most cruel of tyrants, as from a devouring fire ; — 
that he endued the pious priests and others with so much con- 
stancy, that they hesitated not to redeem this treasure, if ne- 
cessary, with their lives, to transmit it to posterity ; and that he 
frustrated the most diligent inquisition of so many governors 
and soldiers. Who is there but must acknowledge it to have 
been an eminent and wonderful work of God, that those sacred 
monuments, which the impious had flattered themselves were 
utterly destroyed, were soon public again, as it were, fully re- 
stored to mankind, and, indeed, with far greater honour? or 
soon after followed the Greek Translation, which published 
them throughout the world. Nor was God’s preserving the 
tables of his covenant from the sanguinary edicts of Antiochus, 
the only instance of his wonderful operation, but that, amidst 
such various miseries, with which the Jewish nation was di- 
minished and laid waste, and at last nearly exterminated, these 
records still remained entire. The Hebrew language lay not 
only despised, but almost unknown; and surely, had not God 
consulted the interest of religion, it had been totally lost. For 
how much the Jews, after their return from captivity, departed 
from the genuine use of their native language, appears from the 
prophets of that age; which it is therefore useful to observe, 
because this comparison more clearly evinces the antiquity of 
the law and the prophets. And by whom hath God preserved 
10 us the doctrine of salvation contained in the law and the 


CHAP. VIII. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 89 


prophets, that Christ might be manifested in due time? By his 
most inveterate enemies, the Jews; whom Augustine therefore 
justly denominates the librarians of the Christian Church, be- 
cause they have furnished us with a book of which themselves 
make no use. 

XI. If we proceed to the New Testament, by what solid 
foundations is its truth supported? 'Three Evangelists recite 
their history in a low and mean style. Many proud men are 
disgusted with that simplicity, because they attend not to the 
principal points of doctrine ; whence it were easy to infer, that 
they treat of heavenly mysteries which are above human ca- 
pacity. ‘They who have a spark of ingenuous modesty will 
certainly be ashamed, if they peruse the first chapter of Luke. 
Now, the discourses of Christ, a concise summary of which is 
comprised in these three Evangelists, easily exempt their wri- 
tings from contempt. But Johny thundering from his sublimity, 
more powerfully than any thunderbolt, levels to the dust the 
obstinacy of those whom he does not compel to the obedience 
of faith. Leet all those censorious critics whose supreme plea- 
sure consists in banishing all reverence for the Scripture out 
of their own hearts and the hearts of others, come forth to pub- 
lic view. Let them read the Gospel of John: whether they 
wish it or not, they will there find numerous passages, which, 
at least, arouse their indolence; and which will even imprint 
a horrible brand on their consciences to restrain their ridicule. 
Similar is the method of Paul and of Peter, in whose writings, 
though the greater part be blind, yet their heavenly majesty 
attracts universal attention. But this one circumstance raises 
‘their doctrine sufficiently above the world, that Matthew, who 
had before been confined to the profit of his table, and Peter 
and John, who had been employed in fishing-boats, — all plain, 
unlettered men, —had learned nothing in any human school 
which they could communicate to others. And Paul, from not 
only a professed, but a cruel and sanguinary enemy, being 
converted to a new man, proves, by his sudden and unhoped for 
change, that he was constrained, by a command from heaven, 
to vindicate that doctrine which he had before opposed. Let 
these men deny that the Holy Spirit descended on the Apos- 
tles ; or, at least, let them dispute the credibility of the history ; 
yet the fact itself loudly proclaims, that they were taught by 
the Spirit, who, though before despised as some of the meanest 
of the people, suddenly began to discourse in such a magnifi- 
cent manner on the mysteries of heaven. 

XII. Besides, there are also other very substantial reasons 
why the consent of the Church should have its weight. For 
it is not an unimportant consideration, that, since the publication 
of the Scripture, so many generations of men should have 

VOL. I. 


90 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK I. 


agreed in voluntarily obeying it; and that however Satan, to- 
gether with the whole world, has endeavoured by strange 
methods to suppress or destroy it, or utterly to erase and oblit- 
erate it from the memory of man, yet it has always, like a palm- 
tree, risen superior to all opposition, and remained invincible. 
Indeed, there has scarcely ever been a sophist or orator of more 
than common abilities, who has not tried his strength in opposing 
it; yet they have all availed nothing. All the powers of the 
earth have armed themselves for its destruction; but their at- 
tempts have all evaporated into smoke. How could it have so 
firmly resisted attacks on every quarter, if it had been supported 
only by human power? Indeed, an additional proof of its Di- 
vine origin arises from this very circumstance, that, notwith- 
standing all the strenuous resistance of men, it has, by its own 
power, risen superior to every danger. Moreover, not one city, 
or one nation, only, has conspied to receive and embrace it; 
but, as far as the world extends, it has obtained its authority 
by the holy consent of various nations, who agreed in nothing 
besides. And as such an agreement of minds, so widely dis- 
tant in place, and so completely dissimilar in manners and 
opinions, ought to have great influence with us, since it is plain 
that it was effected only by the power of heaven, so it acquires 
no small weight from a consideration of the piety of those 
who unite in this agreement; not indeed of all, but of those, 
who, it hath pleased the Lord, should shine as luminaries in 
his Church. 

XIII. Now, with what unlimited confidence should we sub- 
mit to that doctrine, which we see confirmed and witnessed by 
the blood of so many saints! Having once received it, they 
hesitated not, with intrepid boldness, and even with great 
alacrity, to die in its defence: transmitted to us with such a 
pledge, how should we not receive it with a firm and unshaken 
conviction? Is it therefore no small confirmation of the Scrip- 
ture, that it has been sealed with the blood of so many martyrs ? 
especially when we consider that they died to bear testimony to 
their faith, not through intemperate fanaticism, as 1s sometimes 
the case with men of erroneous minds, but through a firm and 
constant, yet sober zeal for God. 'There are other reasons, and 
those neither few nor weak, by which the native dignity and 
authority of the Scripture are not only maintained in the minds 
of the pious, but also completely vindicated against the subtleties 
of calumniators; but such as alone are not sufficient to produce 
firm faith in it, till the heavenly Father, discovering his own 
power therein, places its authority beyond all controversy. 
Wherefore the Scripture will then only be effectual to produce 
the saving knowledge of God, when the certainty of it shall be 
founded on the internal persuasion of the Holy Spint. Thus 


CHAP. Ix.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 91 


those human testimonies, which contribute to its confirmation, 
will not be useless, if they follow that first and principal proof, 
as secondary aids to our imbecility. But those persons betray 
great folly, who wish it to be demonstrated to infidels that the 
Scripture is the word of God, which cannot be known without 
faith. Augustine therefore justly observes, (2) that piety and 
peace of mind ought to precede, in order that a man may un- 
derstand somewhat of such great subjects. 


CHAPTER IX. 


THE FANATICISM WHICH DISCARDS THE SCRIPTURE, UNDER THE 
PRETENCE OF RESORTING TO IMMEDIATE REVELATIONS, SUBVER- 
SIVE OF EVERY PRINCIPLE OF PIETY. 


Persons who, abandoning the Scripture, imagine to them- 
selves some other way of approaching to God, must be con- 
sidered as not so much misled by error as actuated by tren- 
zy. For there have lately arisen some unsteady men, who, 
haughtily pretending to be taught by the Spirit, reject all 
reading themselves, and deride the simplicity of those who 
still attend to (what they style) the dead and killing letter. 
But I would ask them, what spirit that is, by whose inspiration 
they are elevated to such a sublimity, as to dare to despise the 
doctrine of the Scripture, as puerile and mean. For, if they 
answer that it is the Spirit of Christ, how ridiculous is such 
an assurance! for that the apostles of Christ, and other be- 
lievers in the primitive Church, were illuminated by no other 
Spirit, I think they will concede. But not one of them learned, 
from his teaching, to contemn the Divine word; they were 
rather filled with higher reverence for it, as their writings 
abundantly testify. ‘This had been predicted by the mouth 
of Isaiah. For where he says, “‘ My Spirit that is upon thee, 
and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not de- 
part out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, for 
ever,” (7) he does not confine people under the old dispen- 
sation +0 the external letter, as though they were children 
learning to read, but declares, that it will be the true and 
complete felicity of the new Church, under the reign of Christ, 
to be governed by the word of God, as well as by his Spirit. 


(m) Lib. de Util. Credend, (n) Isaiah lix. 21. 


992 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 1. 


Whence we infer, that these persons are guilty of detestable 
sacrilege, in disjoining these two things, which the prophet 
nas connected in an inviolable union. Again; Paul, after he 
had been caught up into the third heaven, did not cease to 
study the doctrine of the law and the prophets; as he also 
exhorted Timothy, a teacher of more than common excellence, 
to ‘“‘give attendance to reading.”’ (0) And worthy of remem- 
brance is his eulogium on the Scripture, that it ‘is profitable 
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in right- 
eousness; that the man of God may be perfect.” (p) How 
diabolical, then, is that madness which pretends that the use 
of the Scripture is only transient and temporary, which guides 
the sons of God to the highest point of perfection! I would 
also ask them another question — whether they have imbibed 
a different spirit from that which the Lord promised to his 
disciples? Great as their infatuation is, I do not think them 
fanatical enough to hazard such an avowal. But what kind 
of Spirit did he promise? One, truly, who should “not 
speak of himself,’’ (q) but suggest and instil into their minds 
those things which he had orally delivered. The office of 
the Spirit, then, which is promised to us, is not to feign new 
and unheard of revelations, or to coin a new system of doctrine, 
which would seduce us from the received doctrine of the Gos- 
pel, but to seal to our minds the same doctrine which the 
Gospel delivers. 

II. Hence we readily understand that it is incumbent on us 
diligently to read and attend to the Scripture, if we would re- 
ceive any advantage or satisfaction from the Spirit of God; 
(thus also Peter (r) commends those who studiously attended 
to the doctrine of the prophets, which yet might be supposed 
to have retired after the light of the Gospel was risen ;) but. 
on the contrary, that if any spirit, neglecting the wisdom of 
the word of God, obtrude on us another doctrine, he ought 
justly to be suspected of vanity and falsehood. For, as Satan 
transforms himself into an angel of light, what authority will 
the Spirit have with us, unless we can distinguish him by the 
most certain criterion? We find him clearly designated, in- 
deed, in the word of the Lord; but these unhappy men are 
fondly bent on delusion, even to their own destruction, seeking 
a spirit rather from themselves than from him. But they 
piead, that it is unworthy of the Spirit of God, to whom all 
things ought to be subject, to be made subject to the Scripture ; 


as though it were ignominious to the Holy Spirit to be every. 


where equal and uniform, in all things invariably consistent 
with himself. If he were to be conformed to the rules of 


(o) 1 Tim. iv. 13. (q) John xvi. 13. 
(p) 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17. (r) 2 Pet. i. 19. 


CHAP. IX. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 93 


men, or of angels, or of any other beings, I grant he might 
then be considered as degraded, or even reduced to a state of 
servitude ; but while he is compared with himself, and con- 
sidered in himself, who will assert that he is thereby injured ? 
This is bringing him to the test of examination. I confess it 
is. But it is the way which he has chosen for the confirma- 
tion of his majesty among us. We ought to be satisfied, as 
soon as he communicates himself to us. | But, lest the spirit of 
Satan should insinuate himself under his name, he chooses to 
be recognized by us from his image, which he hath impressed 
in the Scriptures. He is the author of the Scriptures: he 
cannot be mutable and inconsistent with himself. He must 
therefore perpetually remain such as he has there discovered 
himself to be. ‘This is not disgraceful to him; unless we 
esteem it honourable for him to alter and degenerate from 
himself. 

III. But their cavilling objection, that we depend on “ the 
letter that killeth,” shows, that they have not escaped the pun- 
ishment due to the despisers of the Scripture. For it is suf- 
ficiently evident, that Paul is there contending against the 
false apostles, (s) who, recommending the law to the exclusion 
ot Christ, were seducing the people from the blessings of the 
New Covenant, in which the Lord engages to engrave his law 
in the minds of believers, and to inscribe it on their hearts. 
The letter therefore is dead, and the law of the Lord slays the 
readers of it, where it is separated from the grace of Christ, 
and only sounds in the ears, without affecting the heart. But 
if it be efficaciously impressed on our hearts by the Spirit, — if 
it exhibit Christ, —it is the word of life, ‘‘ converting the soul, 
making wise the simple,” &c.(¢) But in the same place the 
Apostle also calls his preaching ‘‘the ministration of the 
Spirit ;’’(v) doubtless intending, that the Holy Spirit so ad- 
heres to his own truth, which he hath expressed in the Scrip- 
tures, that he only displays and exerts his power where the 
word is received with due reverence and honour. Nor is this 
repugnant to what I before asserted, that the word itself has 
not much certainty with us, unless when confirmed by the 
testimony of the Spirit. For the Lord hath established a kind 
of mutual connection between the certainty of his word and 
of his Spirit; so that our minds are filled with a solid rever- 
ence for the word, when by the light of the Spirit we are 
enabled therein to behold the Divine countenance; and, on 
the other hand, without. the least fear of mistake, we gladly 
receive the Spirit, when we recognize him in his image, that 
is, in the word. ‘This is the true state of the case. God did 


(s) 2 Cor. iii. 6. | (t) Psalm xix. 7. (v) 2 Cor. iti. 8 


94 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book L 


not publish his word to mankind for the sake of momentary 
ostentation, with a design to destroy or annul it immediately 
on the advent of the Spirit; but he afterwards sent the same 
Spirit, by whose agency he had dispensed his word, to com- 
plete -his work by an efficacious confirmation of that word. 
In this*manner Christ opened the understanding of his two 
disciples ; (w) not that, rejecting the Scriptures, they might be 
wise enough of themselves, but that they might understand 
the Scriptures. So when Paul exhorts the Thessalonians to 
‘quench not the Spirit,” (x) he does not lead them to empty 
speculations independent of the word; for he immediately 
adds, ‘‘despise not prophesyings;”’ clearly intimating, that the 
light of the Spirit is extinguished when prophecies fall into 
contempt. What answer can be given to these things, by 
those proud fanatics, who think themselves possessed of the 
only valuable illumination, when, securely neglecting and for- 
saking the Divine word, they, with equal confidence and 
temerity, greedily embrace every reverie which their distem- 
pered imaginations may have conceived? A very different 
sobriety becomes the children of God; who, while they are 
sensible that, exclusively of the Spirit of God, they are utterly 
destitute of ‘the light of truth, yet are not ignorant that the 
word is the instrument, by which the Lord dispenses to be- 
lievers the illumination of his Spirit. For they know no other 
Spirit than that who dwelt in and spake by the apostles ; by 
whose oracles they are continually called to the hearing of 
the word. 


> 


CHAPTER X. 


ALL IDOLATROUS WORSHIP DISCOUNTENANCED IN THE SCRIPTURE, 
BY ITS EXCLUSIVE OPPOSITION OF THE TRUE GOD TO ALL THE 
FICTITIOUS DEITIES OF THE HEATHEN. 


But, since we have shown that the knowledge of God, which 
is otherwise exhibited without obscurity in the structure of the 
world, and in all the creatures, is yet more familiarly and 
clearly unfolded in the word, it will be useful to examine, 
whether the representation, which the Lord gives us of him- 
self in the Scripture, agrees with the portraiture which he had 
Yefore been pleased to delineate in his works. This is indeed 
an extensive subject, if we intended to dwell on a particular 


(w) Luke xxiv. 27, &c. (z) 1 Thess. v. 19. 


CHAP. R..] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 95 


discussion of it. But I shall content myself with suggesting 
some hints, by which the minds of the pious may learn what 
ought to be their principal objects of investigation in Scripture 
concerning God, and may be directed to a certain end in that 
inquiry. Ido not yet allude to the peculiar covenant which 
distinguished the descendants of Abraham from the rest of the 
nations. For in receiving, by gratuitous adoption, those who 
were his enemies into the number of his children, God even 
then manifested himself as a Redeemer ; but we are still treat- 
ing of that knowledge which relates to the creation of the 
world, without ascending to Christ the Mediator. But though 
it will be useful soon to cite some passages from the New 
Testament, (since that also demonstrates the power of God in 
the creation, and his providence in the conservation of the 
world,) yet I wish the reader to be apprized of the point now 
intended to be discussed, that he may not pass the limits which 
the subject prescribes. At present, then, let it suffice to under- 
stand how God, the former of heaven and earth, governs the 
world which he hath made. Both his paternal goodness, and 
the beneficent inclinations of his will, are every where cel- 
ebrated ; and examples are given of his severity, which dis- 
cover him to be the righteous punisher of iniquities, especially 
where, his forbearance produces no salutary effects upon the 
obstinate. 

II. In some places, indeed, we are favoured with more ex- 
plicit descriptions, which exhibit to our view an exact repre- 
sentation of his genuine countenance. For Moses, in the 
description which he gives of it, certainly appears to have in- 
tended a brief comprehension of all that it was possible for 
men to know concerning him—‘“ The Lord, the Lord God, ~ 
merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in good- 
ness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity, 
and transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear 
the guilty ; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the chil- 
dren, and upon the children’s children.” (y) Where we may 
observe, first, the assertion of his eternity and self-existence, 
in that magnificent name, which is twice repeated; and sec- 
ondly, the celebration of his attributes, giving us a description, 
not of what he is in himself, but of what he is to us, that our 
knowledge of him may consist rather in a lively perception, 
than in vain and airy speculation. Here we find an enumera- 
tion of the same perfeetions which, as we have remarked, are 
illustriously displayed both in heaven and on earth — clemency, 
goodness, mercy, justice, judgment, and truth. For power is 
comprised in the word Elohim, God. The prophets distin- 


(y) Exod. xxxiv. 6. 


96 INSTITUTES UF THE [Book 1, 


cuish him by the same epithets, when they intend a complete 
exhibition of his holy name. But, to avoid the necessity of 
quoting many passages, let us content ourselves at present 
with referring to one Psalm;(z) which contains such an ac- 
curate summary of all his perfections, that nothing seems to 
be omitted. And yet it contains nothing but what may be 
known from a contemplation of the creatures. Thus, by the 
teaching of experience, we perceive God to be just what he 
declares himself in his word. In Jeremiah, where he an- 
nounces in what characters he will be known by us, he gives 
a description, not so full, but to the same effect — ‘‘ Let him 
that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth 
me, that Iam the Lord, which exercise loving-kindness, judg- 
ment, and righteousness in the earth.” (a) 'These three things 
it is certainly of the highest importance for us to know — 
mercy, in which alone consists all our salvation ; judgment, 
which is executed on the wicked every day, and awaits them 
in a still heavier degree to eternal destruction ; righteousness, 
by which the faithful are preserved, and most graciously sup- 
ported. When you understand these things, the prophecy de- 
clares that you have abundant reason for glorying in God. 
Nor is this representation chargeable with an omission of his 
truth, or his power, or his holiness, or his goodness. For how 
could we have that knowledge, which is here required, of his 
righteousness, mercy, and judgment, unless it were supported 
by his inflexible veracity? And how could we believe that 
he governed the world in judgment and justice, if we were 
ignorant of his power? And whence proceeds his mercy, but 
from his goodness? If all his ways, then, are mercy, judgment, 
and righteousness, holiness also must be conspicuously dis- 
played in them. Moreover, the knowledge of God, which is 
afforded us in the Scriptures, is designed for the same end as 
that which we derive from the creatures: it invites us first to 
the fear of God, and then to confidence in him; that we may 
learn to honour him with perfect innocence of life, and sincere 
obedience to his will, and to place all our dependence on his. 
goodness. 

III. But here I intend to comprise a summary of the gen- 
eral doctrine. And, first, let the reader observe, that the 
Scripture, in order to direct us to the true God, expressly ex- 
cludes and rejects all the gods of the heathen; because, in 
almost all ages, religion has been generally corrupted. It is 
true, indeed, that the name of one supreme God has been 
universally known and celebrated. For those who used to 
worship a multitude of deities, whenever they spake according 


z) Psalm exlv. a) Jer. ix. 24. 
( 


cHapP. x1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 4 


to the genuine sense of nature, used simply the name of God, 
in the singular number, as though they were contented with 
one God. And this was wisely remarked by Justin Martyr, 
who for this purpose wrote a book On the Monarchy of God, 
in which he demonstrates, from numerous testimonies, that 
the unity of God was a principle universally impressed on the 
hearts of men. ‘Tertullian also proves the same point from 
the common phraseology.(b) But since all men, without ex- 
ception, have by their own vanity been drawn into erroneous 
notions, and so their understandings have become Vain, all 
their natural perception of the Divine unity has only served 
to render them inexcusable. For even the wisest of them 
evidently betray the vagrant uncertainty of their minds, when 
they wish for some god to assist them, and in their vows call 
upon unknown and fabulous deities. Besides, in imagining 
the existence of many natures in God, though they did not 
entertain such absurd notions as the ignorant vulgar concern- 
ing Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Minerva, and the rest, they were 
themselves by no means exempt from the delusions of Satan ; 
and, as we have already remarked, whatever subterfuges their 
ingenuity has invented, none of the philosophers can exculpate 
themselves from the crime of revolting from God by the cor- 
ruption of his truth. For this reason Habakkuk, after con- 
demning all idols, bids us to seek “the Lord in his holy tem- 
ple,” (ec) that the faithful might acknowledge no other God 
than Jehovah, who had revealed himself in his word. 


CHAPTER XI. 


UNLAWFULNESS OF ASCRIBING TO GOD A VISIBLE FORM. ALL 
IDOLATRY A DEFECTION FROM THE TRUE GOD. 


Now, as the Scripture, in consideration of the ignorance and 
dulness of the human understanding, generally speaks in the 
plainest manner, — where it intends to discriminate between 
the true God and all false gods, it principally contrasts him 
with idols; not that it may sanction the more ingenious and 
plausible systems of the philosophers, but that it may better 
detect the folly and even madness of the world in researches 
concerning God, as long as every one adheres to his own 
speculations. That exclusive definition, therefore, which 


(b) Lib. de Idolol. Vid. Aug. Epist. 43 et 44. (c) Hab. ii. 20. 
VOL. I. 13 


98 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book , 


every where occurs, reduces to nothing whatever notions of — 
the Deity men may form in their own imaginations; since 
God alone is a sufficient witness concerning himself. In 
the mean time, since the whole world has been seized with 
such brutal stupidity, as to. be desirous of visible representa- 
tions of the Deity, and thus to fabricate gods of wood, stone, 
gold, silver, and other inanimate and corruptible materials, we 
ought to hold this as a certain principle, that, whenever any 
image is made as a representation of God, the Divine glory 
is corrupted by an impious falsehood. Therefore God, in the 
law, after having asserted the glory of Deity to belong ex- 
clusively to himself, when he intends to show what worship 
he approves or rejects, immediately adds, ‘‘'Thou shalt not 
make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness.” In these 
words he forbids us to attempt a representation of him in any 
visible figure ; and briefly enumerates all the forms by which 
superstition had already begun to change his truth into a lie. 
F’or the Persians, we know, worshipped the sun; and the fool- 
ish heathen made for themselves as many gods as they saw 
stars in the‘heavens. 'There was scarcely an animal, indeed, 
which the Egyptians did not consider as an image of God. 
The Greeks appeared wiser than the rest, because they wor- 
shipped the Deity under the human form.(d) But God com- 
pares not idols with each other, as though one were better or 
worse than another; but rejects, without a single exception, 
all statues, pictures, and other figures, in which idolaters 
imagined that he would be near them. 

II. ‘This it is easy to infer from the reasons which he an- 
nexes to the prohibition. First, in the writings of Moses: 
‘Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no 
manner of similitude, on the day that the Lord spake unto you 
in Horeb, out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of 
the words, but saw no similitude; lest ye corrupt yourselves, 
and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure,” 
&c. (e) We see how expressly God opposes his “‘ voice ” to every 
‘‘manner of similitude,”’ to show, that whoever desires visible 
representations of him, is guilty of departing from him. It will 
be sufficient to refer to one of the Prophets, Isaiah, (f) who in- 
sists more than all the others on this argument, that the Divine 
Majesty is dishonoured by mean and absurd fiction, when he 
that is incorporeal is likened to a corporeal form; he that is 
invisible, to a visible image; he that is a spirit, to inanimate 
matter ; and he that fills immensity, to a log of wood, a small 
stone, or a lump of gold. Paul also reasons in the same man- 
wer: ‘“‘Forasmuch, then, as we are the offsprmg of God, we 


(d) Maximus Tyrius, Plat. Serm. 38. (e) Deut. iv. 15, 
(f) Isaiah x}. 18; x". 7, 29; xlvi. 5, &e. 


CHAP. XI.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 99 


ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, 
or stone, graven by art and man’s device.” (g) Whence it fol- 
lows, that whatever statues are erected, or images painted, to 
represent God, they are only displeasing to him, as being so 
many insults to the Divine Majesty. And why should we won- 
der at the Holy Spirit thundering forth such oracles from heav- 
en, since he compels the blind and wretched idolaters to make 
a similar confession on earth? Well known is the complaint of 
Seneca, which is cited by Augustine: “They dedicate (says 
he) the vilest and meanest materials to represent the sacred, im- 
mortal, and inviolable gods; and give them some a human 
form, and some a brutal one, and some a double sex, and dif- 
ferent bodies; and they confer the name of gods upon images 
which, if animated, would be accounted monsters.” Hence it 
further appears that the pretence set up by the advocates for 
idols, that they were forbidden to the Jews because they were 
prone to superstition, is only a frivolous cavil, to evade the 
force of the argument. As if truly that were peculiarly applica- 
ble to one nation, which God deduces from his eternal existence, 
and the invariable order of nature! Besides, Paul was not ad- 
dressing the Jews, but the Athenians, when he refuted the 
error of making any similitude of God. 

IiI. Sometimes indeed God hath discovered his presence by 
certain signs, so that he was said to be seen “face to face ;” ( h) 
but all the signs which he ever adopted, were well calcula- 
ted for the instruction of men, and afforded clear intimations of 
his incomprehensible essence. For “the cloud, and the smoke, 
and the flame,” (7) though they were symbols of celestial glory, 
nevertheless operated as a restraint on the minds of all, to pre- 
vent their attempting to penetrate any further. Wherefore even 
Moses (to whom he manifested himself more familiarly than to 
any other) obtained not by his prayers a sight of the face of God, 
but received this answer: “Thou canst not see my face ; for 
there shall no man see my face and live.” (k) The Holy Spirit 
once appeared in the form of a dove ; (/) but, as he presently dis- 
appeared again, who does not perceive that by this momentary 
symbol the faithful are taught that they should believe.the Spirit 
to be invisible? that, bemg content with his power and grace, 
they might make no external representation of him. The appear- 
ances of God in the human form were preludes to his future 
manifestation in Christ. Therefore the Jews were not per- 
mitted to make this a pretext for erecting a symbol of Deity in 
the figureofaman. ‘The mercy seat” (m) also, from which, 
under the law, God displayed the presence of his power, was 
so constructed, as to suggest that the best contemplation of the 


(@) Acts xvii.29. —(é) Deut. iv. 11. (I) Matt. iii. 16. 
(hk) Exod. xxxiit.11. (k) Exod. xxxiii. 20. (m) Exod. xxv. 17, 18, &c 


100 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 1. 


Divine Being is when the mind is transported beyond itself 
with admiration. For ‘the cherubim” covered it with their 
extended wings; the veil was spread before it; and the place. 
itself was sufficiently concealed, by its secluded situation. It 
is manifestly unreasonable therefore to endeavour to defend im- 
ages of God and of the saints, by the example of those cher- 
ubim. For, pray, what was signified by those little images but 
that images are not calculated to represent the Divine mysteries ? 
since they were formed in such a manner as, by veiling the mer- 
cy seat with their wings, to prevent not only the eyes, but all 
the human senses, from prying into God, and so to restrain all 
temerity. Moreover, the Prophet describes the seraphim whom 
he saw in a vision, as having “their faces covered ;” (7) to 
signify, that the splendour of the Divine glory is so great, that 
even the angels themselves cannot steadfastly behold it ; and 
the faint sparks of it, which shine in the angels, are concealed 
from our view. The cherubim, however, of which we are now 
speaking, are acknowledged by all persons of sound judgment 
to have been peculiar to the old state of tutelage under the le- 
gal dispensation. ‘'T’o adduce them, therefore, as examples for 
the imitation of the present age, is quite absurd. For that pu- 
erile period, as I may call it, for which such rudiments were ap- 
pointed, is now past. And, indeed, it is a shameful considera- 
tion, that heathen writers are more expert interpreters of the 
Divine law than the papists. Juvenal reproaches and ridicules 
the Jews for worshipping the white clouds and Deity of heaven. 
This language, indeed, is perverse and impious; but in denying 
that there was any image of God among them, he speaks with 
more truth than the papists, who idly pretend that there was 
some visible figure of him. But as that nation frequently broke 
out into idolatry, with great and sudden impetuosity, resembling 
the violent ebullition of water from a large spring, hence let us 
learn the strong propensity of the human mind to idolatry, lest, 
imputing to the Jews a crime common to all, we should be fas- 
cinated by the allurements of sin, and sleep the sleep of death. 

IV. ‘'l'o the same purpose is that passage, ‘‘ The idols of the 
heathen are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands; ” (0) for 
the Prophet concludes, from the very materials, that they are 
no gods, whose images are made of gold or of silver; and 
takes it for granted, that every conception we form of the Deity, 
merely from our own understandings, is a foolish imagination. 
He mentions gold and silver rather than clay or stone, that the 
splendour or the value of the materials may procure no rever- 
ence for the idols. But he concludes in general, that nothing: 
1S more improbable, than that gods should be manufactured 


(n) Isaiah vi. 2. (0) Psalm exxxy. 15. 


CHAP. xt. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. ; 101 


from any inanimate matter. At the same time he insists 
equally on another point —that it is presumption and madness 
in mortal men, who are every moment in danger of losing the 
fleeting breath which they draw, to dare to confer upon idols 
the honour due.to God. Man is constrained to confess that 
he is a creature of a day, and yet he will have a piece of metal 
to be worshipped as a god, of the deity of which he is the au- 
thor; for whence did idols originate, but in the will of men? 
There is much propriety in that sarcasm of a heathen poet, 
who represents one of their idols as saying, ‘‘ Formerly, I was 
the trunk of a wild fig-tree, a useless log ; when the artificer, 
after hesitating whether he would make me a stool or a deity, 
at length determined that I should be a god.” (p) 

A poor mortal, forsooth, who is, as it were, expiring almost 
every moment, will, by his workmanship, transfer to a dead 
stock the name and honour of God. But as that Epicurean, in 
his satirical effusions, has paid no respect to any religica, — leav- 
ing this sarcasm, and others of the same kind, we should be 
stung and penetrated by the rebuke which the Prophet (q) has 
given to the extreme stupidity of those, who, with the same 
wood, make a fire to warm themselves, heat an oven for baking 
bread, roast or boil their meat, and fabricate a god, before which 
they prostrate themselves, to address their humble supplications. 
In another place, therefore, he not only pronounces them trans- 
gressors of the law, but reproaches them for not having learned 
from the foundations of the earth ; (7) since, in reality, there is 
nothing more unreasonable than the thought of contracting the 
infinite and incomprehensible God within the compass of five 
eet. And yet this monstrous abomination, which is manifestly 
repugnant to the order of nature, experience demonstrates to be 
natural to man. It must be further observed, that idols are fre- 
quently stigmatized as being the works of men’s hands, unsanc- 
tioned by Divine authority ; in order to establish this principle, 
that all modes of worship which are merely of human invention, 
are detestable. The Psalmist aggravates this madness, foras- 
much as men implore the aid of dead and insensible things, who 
are imbued with understanding to know that all things are 
directed solely by the power of God. But since the corrup- 
tion of nature carries all nations in general, and each individual 
in particular, to such an excess of frenzy, the Spirit at length 
thunders out this direful imprecation: ‘Let those that make 
them be like unto them and every one that trusteth in them.” (s) 
Let it be observed, that all similitudes are equally as much for- 
bidden as graven images; which refutes the foolish subterfuge 
of the Greeks; for they think themselves quite safe, if they 


(p) Hor. Sat. lib. 1, 8. — (r) Isaiah x1. 21. 
(q) Isaiah xliv. 9—20. (s) Psalm exv. 8. 


102 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK i. 


make no sculpture of Deity, while in pictures they indulge 
greater liberty than any other nations. But the Lord prohibits 
every representation of him, whether made by the statuary, or 
by any other artificer, because all similitudes are criminal and 
insulting to the Divine Majesty. 

VY. I know that it isa very common observation, that images 
are the books of the illiterate. Gregory said so; but very dif- 
ferent is the decision of the Spirit of God, in whose school 
had Gregory been taught, he would never have made such an 
assertion. For, since Jeremiah pronounces that ‘the stock is 
a doctrine of vanities,” (¢) since Habakkuk represents “a mol- 
ten image ”’ as ‘‘a teacher of lies,’ (v)—certainly the general 
doctrine to be gathered from these passages is, that whatever 
men learn respecting God from images is equally frivolous and 
false. If any one object, that the Prophets only reprehended 
those who abuse images to the impious purposes of super- 
stition, —that indeed I grant; but affirm also, what is evident 
to every one, that they utterly condemn what is assumed hy 
the papists as an indubitable axiom, that images are substitutes 
for books. For they contrast images with the true God, as 
contraries, which can never agree. ‘T'his comparison, I say, is 
laid down in those passages which I have just cited ; that, since 
there is only one true God, whom the Jews worshipped, there 
can be no visible figures made, to serve as representations of 
the Divine Being, without falsehood and criminality; and all 
who seek the knowledge of God from such figures are under a 
miserable’ delusion. Were it not true, that all knowledge of 
God, sought from images, is corrupt and fallacious, it would not 
be so uniformly condemned by the Prophets. This at least 
must be granted to us, that, when we maintain the vanity and 
fallaciousness of the attempts of men to make visible represen- 
tations of God, we do no other than recite the express declara- 
tions of the Prophets. 

VI. Read likewise what has been written on this subject 
by Lactantius and Eusebius, who hesitate not to assume as a 
certainty, that all those whose images are to be seen, were 
mortal men. Augustine also confidently asserts the unlawful- 
ness, not only of worshipping images, but even of erecting 
any with reference to God. Nor does he advance any thing 
different from what had, many years before, been decreed by 
the Elibertine council, the thirty-sixth chapter of which is as 
follows: ‘It hath been decreed, that no pictures be had in 
the churches, and that what is worshipped or adored be not 
painted on the walls.”” But most remarkable is what Augus- 
tine elsewhere cites from Varro, and to the truth of which he 


(t) Jer. x. 8. (v) Hab. ii. 18. 


CHAP. Xt1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 103 


subscribes — “That they who first introduced images of the 
gods, removed fear and added error.” If this had been a 
mere assertion of Varro alone, it might have perhaps but little 
authority ; yet it should justly. fill us with shame, that a 
heathen, groping as it were in the dark, attained so much 
lhght as to perceive that corporeal representations were un- 
worthy of the Divine Majesty, being calculated to diminish 
the fear of God, and to increase error among mankind. 'The 
fact itself demonstrates this to have been spoken with equal 
truth and wisdom; but Augustine, having borrowed it from 
Varro, advances it as his own opinion. And first he observes 
that the most ancient errors concerning God, in which men 
were involved, did not originate from images, but were in- 
creased by them, as by the superaddition of new materials. 
_He next explains that the fear of God is thereby diminished, 
and even destroyed ; since the foolish, ridiculous, and absurd 
fabrication of idols would easily bring his Divinity into con- 
tempt. Of the truth of this second remark, I sincerely wish 
that we had not such proofs in our own experience. Who- 
ever, therefore, desires to be rightly instructed, he must learn 
from some other quarter than from images, what is to be known 
concerning God. 

VII. If the papists have any shame, let them no longer use 
this subterfuge, that images are the books of the illiterate ; 
which is so clearly refuted by numerous testimonies from 
Scripture. Yet, though I should concede this point to them, 
it would avail them but little in defence of their idols. What 
monsters they obtrude in the place of Deity is well known. 
But what they call the pictures or statues of their saints — 
what are they but examples of the most abandoned luxury 
and obscenity ? which if any one were desirous of imitating, 
he would deserve corporal punishment. Even prostitutes in 
brothels are to be seen 1n more chaste and modest attire, than 
those images in their temples, which they wish to be account- 
ed images of virgins. Nor do they clothe the martyrs in 
habits at all more becoming. Let them adorn their idols, then, 
with some small degree of modesty, that the pretence of their 
being books of some holiness, if not less false, may be less 
impudent. But even then, we will reply, that this is not the 
method to be adopted in sacred places for the instruction 
of the faithful, whom God will have taught a very different 
doctrine from any that can be learned from such insignificant 
trifles. He hath commanded one common doctrine to be there 
proposed to all, in the preaching of his word, and 1n his sacred 
mysteries; to which they betray great inattention of mind, 
who are carried about by their eyes to the contemplation of 
idols. Whom, then. do the papists call illiterate, whose ig- 


104. INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 1 


norance will suffer them to be taught only by images? 
Those, truly, whom the Lord acknowledges as his disciples; 
whom he honours with the revelation of his heavenly philoso- 
phy ; whom he will have instructed in the healthful mysteries 
of his kingdom. I confess, indeed, as things are now cir- 
cumstanced, that there are at present not a few who cannot 
bear to be deprived of such books. But whence arises this 
stupidity, but from being defrauded of that teaching which 
alone is adapted to their instruction? In fact, those who pre- 
sided over the churches, resigned to idols the office of teach- 
ing, for no other reason but because they were themselves 
dumb. Paul testifies, that in the true preaching of this gospel, 
Christ is ‘evidently set forth,” and, as it were, ‘‘ crucified 
before our eyes.” (w) To what purpose, then, was the erec- 
tion of so many crosses of wood and stone, silver and gold, 
every where in the temples, if it had been fully and faithfully 
inculcated, that Christ died that he might bear our curse on 
the cross, expiate our sins by the sacrifice of his body, cleanse 
us by his blood, and, in a word, reconcile us to God the 
Father? From this simple declaration they might learn more 
than from a thousand crosses of wood or stone; for perhaps 
the avaricious fix their minds and their eyes more tenaciously 
on the gold and silver crosses, than on any part of the Divine 
word. 

VIII. Respecting the origin of idols, the generally received 
opinion agrees with what is asserted in the book of Wis- 
dom ;(z) namely, that the first authors of them were persons 
who paid this honour to the dead, from a superstitious reverence 
for their memory. I grant that this perverse custom was very 
ancient, and deny not that it greatly contributed to increase 
the rage of mankind after idolatry ; nevertheless, I cannot con- 
cede that it was the first cause of thatevil. For it appears from 
Moses, that idols were in use long before the introduction of that 
ostentatious consecration of the images of the dead, which is 
frequently mentioned by profane writers. When he relates that 
Rachel stole her father’s idols, (y) he speaks as of a common 
corruption. Whence we may infer, that the mind of man is, 
if I may be allowed the expression, a perpetual manufactory 
of idols. After the deluge, there was, as it were, a regenera- 
tion of the world; but not many years elapsed before men 
fabricated gods according to their own fancy. And it is prob- 
able, that while the holy patriarch was yet alive, his posterity 
were addicted to idolatry, so that, with the bitterest grief, he 
might, with his own eyes, behold the earth which God had 
lately purged from its corruptions by such a dreadful judgment, 


(w) Gal. vii. 1. (z) Wisdom xiv. 15. (y) Gen. xxxi. 19, 


CHAP. xt. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 105 


again polluted with idols. For Terah and Nachor, before the 
birth of Abraham, were worshippers of false gods, as is asserted 
by Joshua (z) Since the posterity of Shem so speedily de- 
generated, what opinion must we entertain of the descendants 
of Ham, who had already been cursed in their father? The 
true state of the case is, that the mind of man, being full of 
pride and temerity, dares to conceive of God according to its 
own standard ; and, being sunk in stupidity, and immersed in 
profound ignorance, imagines a vain and ridiculous phantom 
instead of God. These evils are followed by another; men 
attempt to express in the work of their hands such a deity as 
they have imagined in their minds. The mind then begets 
the idol, and the hand brings it forth. 'The example of the 
Israelites proves this to have been the origin of idolatry, 
namely, that men believe not God to be among them, unless 
he exhibit some external signs of his presence. ‘ As for this 
Moses,” they said, ‘‘ we wot not what is become of him ; make 
us gods which shall go before us.” (a) They knew, indeed, 
that there was a God, whose power they had experienced in 
so many miracles; but they had no confidence in his being 
present with them, unless they could see some corporeal sym- 
bol of his countenance, as a testimony of their Divine Guide. 
They wished, therefore, to understand, from the image going 
before them, that God was the leader of their march. Daily 
experience teaches, that the flesh is never satisfied, till it has 
obtained some image, resembling itself, in which it may be 
foolishly gratified, as an image of God. In almost all ages, 
from the creation of the world, in obedience to this stupid 
propensity, men have erected visible representations, in which 
they believed God to be presented to their carnal eyes. 

IX. Such an invention is immediately attended with adora- 
tion; for when men supposed that they saw God in images, 
they also worshipped him in them. At length, both their eyes 
and their minds being wholly confined to them, they began 
to grow more stupid, and to admire them, as though they pos- 
sessed some inherent divinity. Now, it is plain that men did 
not rush into the worship of images, till they had imbibed 
some very gross opinion respecting them ; not, indeed, that they 
believed them to be gods, but they imagined that something 
of Divinity resided in them. When you prostrate yourself, 
therefore, in adoration of an image, whether you suppose it te 
represent God or a creature, you are already fascinated with 
superstition. For this reason the Lord hath prohibited, not 
only the erection of statues made as representations of him, 
but also the consecration of any inscriptions or monuments to 


(z) Joshua xxiv. 2. (a) Exod. xxxii. 1. 
VOL. I. 14 


106 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 1. 


stand as objects of worship. For the same reason, also, another 
point is annexed to the precept in the law concerning adora- 
tion. For as soon as men have made a visible figure of God, 
they attach Divine power to it. Such is the stupidity of 
men, that they confine God to any image which they make 
to represent him, and therefore cannot but worship it. Nor is 
it of any importance, whether they worship simply the idol, or 
God in the idol; it is always idolatry, when Divine honours 
are paid to an idol, under any pretence whatsoever. And as 
God will not be worshipped in a superstitious or idolatrous 
manner, whatever is conferred on idols is taken from him. 
Let this be considered by those who seek such miserable pre- 
texts for the defence of that execrable idolatry, with which, 
for many ages, true religion has been overwhelmed and sub- 
verted. The images, they say, are not considered as gods. 
Neither were the Jews so thoughtless as not to remember, that 
it was God by whose hand they had been conducted out of 
Egypt, before they made the calf. But when Aaron said that 
those were the gods by whom they had been liberated from 
Egypt, they boldly assented;() signifying, doubtless, that 
they would keep in remembrance, that God himself was their 
deliverer, while they could see him going before them in the 
calf. Nor can we believe the heathen to have been so stupid, 
as to conceive that God was no other than wood and stone. 
For they changed the images at pleasure, but always retained 
in their minds the same gods; and there were many images 
for one god; nor did they imagine to themselves gods in pro- 
portion to the multitude of images: besides, they daily con- 
secrated new images, but without supposing that they made 
new gods. Read the excuses, which, Augustine says, (¢) 
were alleged by the idolaters of the age in which he lived. 
When they were charged with idolatry, the vulgar replied, 
that they worshipped, not the visible figure, but the Divinity 
that invisibly dwelt in it. But they, whose religion was, as 
he expresses himself, more refined, said, that they worshipped 
neither the image, nor the spirit represented by it; but that 
in the corporeal figure they beheld a sign of that which they 
ought to worship. What is to be inferred from this, but that 
all idolaters, whether Jewish or Gentile, have been guided by 
the notion which I have mentioned? Not content with a 
spiritual knowledge of God, they thought that they should 
receive more clear and familiar impressions of him by means 
of images. After they had once pleased themselves with such 
a preposterous representation of God, they ceased not from 
being deluded with new fallacies, till they imagined that God 


(b) Exod. xxxii. 4—6. (c) In Psalm exin 


CHAP. XI.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 107 


displayed his power in images. Nevertheless, the Jews were 
persuaded that, under such images, they worshipped the 
eternal God, the one true Lord of heaven and earth; and the 
heathen, that they worshipped their false gods, whom they 
pretended to be inhabitants of heaven. 

X. Those who deny that this has been done in time past, 
and even within our own remembrance, assert an impudent 
falsehood. For why do they prostrate themselves before images? 
And when about to pray, why do they turn themselves to- 
wards them, as towards the ears of God? For it is true, as Au- 
gustine says, (d) ‘‘'That no man prays or worships thus, look- 
ing on an image, who is not impressed with an opinion that 
he shall be heard by it, and a hope that it will do for him as 
he desires.”” Why is there so great a difference between im- 
ages of the same god, that one is passed by with little or no 
respect, and another is honoured in the most solemn manner ? 
Why do they fatigue themselves with votive pilgrimages, in 
going to see images resembling those which they have at home? 
Why do they at this day fight, even to slaughter and destruction, 
in defence of them, as of their country and religion, so that they 
could part with the only true God more easily than with their 
idols? Yet I am not here enumerating the gross errors of the . 
vulgar, which are almost infinite, and occupy nearly the hearts 
of all; I only relate what they themselves allege, when they 
are most anxious to exculpate themselves from idolatry. ‘‘ We 
never,” say they, ‘‘call them our gods.” Nor did the Jews or 
heathen in ancient times call them their gods; and yet the 
Prophets, in all their writings, were constantly accusing them 
of fornication with wood and stone, only on account of such 
things as are daily practised by those who wish to be thought 
Christians ; that is, for worshipping God, by corporeal adoration — 
before figures of wood or stone. 

XI. Iam neithef@gnorant, nor desirous of concealing, that 
they evade the charge by a more subtle distinction, which will 
soon be noticed more at large. ‘They pretend that the rever- 
ence which they pay to images is sidwaodovAsia, (service of im- 
ages,) but deny that it is edwdcdarpsia (worship of images.) 
For in this manner they express themselves, when they main- 
tain, that the reverence which they call dulia, may be given 
to statues or pictures, without injury to God. 'They consider 
themse:ves, therefore, hable to no blame, while they are only 
the servants of their idols, and not worshippers of them; as 
though worship were not rather inferior to service. And yet, 
while they seek to shelter themselves under a Greek term, 
they contradict themselves in the most childish manner. For 


(d) In Psalm exiil. 


108 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 1. 


since the Greek word Aarpsvew signifies nothing else but to wor- 
ship, what they say is equivalent to a confession that they 
adore their images, but without adoration. Nor can they 
justly object, that Iam trying to insnare them with words: 
they betray their own ignorance in their endeavours to raise a 
mist before the eyes of the simple. But, however eloquent 
they may be, they will never be able, by their rhetoric, to 
prove one and the same thing to be two different things. Let 
them point out, I say, a difference in fact, that they may be ac- 
counted different from ancient idolaters. For as an adulterer, 
or homicide, will not escape the imputation of guilt, by giving 
his crime a new and arbitrary name, so it is absurd that these 
persons should be exculpated by the subtle invention of a name, 
if they really differ in no respect from those idolaters whom 
they themselves are constrained to condemn. But their case 
is so far from being different from that of former idolaters, that 
the source of all the evil is a preposterous emulation, with 
which they have rivalled them by exercising their minds in 
contriving, and their hands in forming, visible symbols of the 
Deity. 

XII. Nevertheless, I am not so scrupulous as to think that 
no images ought ever to be permitted. But since sculpture and 
painting are gifts of God, I wish for a pure and legitimate use 
of both; lest those things, which the Lord hath conferred on 
us for his glory and our benefit, be not only corrupted by pre- 
posterous abuse, but even perverted to our ruin. We think it 
unlawful to make any visible figure as a representation of God, 
because he hath himself forbidden it, and it cannot be done 
without detracting, in some measure, from his glory. Let it 
_not be supposed that we are singular in this opinion ; for that 

all sound writers have uniformly reprobated the practice, must 
be evident to persons conversant with their works. I, then, it 
be not lawful to make any corporeal representation of God, 
much less will it be lawful to-worship it for God, or to worship 
/ God in it. We conclude, therefore, that nothing should be 
/) painted and engraved but objects visible to our eyes: the Di- 
vine Majesty, which is far above the reach of human sight, 
ought not to be corrupted by unseemly figures. 'The subjects 
of those arts consist partly of histories and transactions, partly 
of images and corporeal forms, without reference to any transac- 
tions. The former are of some use in information or recollec- 
tion; the latter, as far as I see, can furnish nothing but amuse- 
ment And yet it is evident, that almost all the images, which 
have hitherto been set up in the churches, have been of this 
latter description. Hence it may be seen, that they were placed 
there, not with judgment and discrimination, but from a foolish 
aid inconsiderate passion for them. I say nothing here of the 


CHAP. xI.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 109 


impropriety and indecency conspicuous in most of them, and 
the wanton licentiousness displayed in them by the painters 
and statuaries, at which I have before hinted: I ouly assert, 
that even if they were intrinsically faultless, still they would 
be altogether unavailing for the purposes of instruction. 

XIIf. But, passing over that difference also, let us consider, 
as we proceed, whether it be expedient to have any images at 
all in Christian temples, either descriptive of historical events, 
or representative of human forms. In the first place, if the 
authority of the ancient Church have any influence with us, 
let us remember, that for about five hundred years, while re- 
ligion continued in a more prosperous state, and purer doctrine 
prevailed, the Christian churches were generally without 
images. ‘They were then first introduced, therefore, to orna- 
ment the churches, when the purity of the ministry had begun 
to degenerate. I will not dispute what was the reason which 
influenced the first authors of them; but if you compare one 
age with another, you will see that they were much declined 
from the integrity of those who had no images. Who can 
suppose, that those holy fathers would have permitted the 
Church to remain so long destitute of what they judged use- 
ful and salutary for it? ‘The fact was, that, instead of omitting 
them through ignorance or negligence, they perceived them 
to be of little or no use, but, on the contrary, pregnant with 
much danger; and, therefore, intentionally and wisely re- 
jected them. ‘This is asserted in express terms by Augustine : 
‘‘ When they are fixed,” says he, ‘‘in those places in an hon- 
ourable elevation, to attract the attention of those who are 
praying and sacrificing, though they are destitute of sense 
and life, yet, by the very similitude of living members and 
senses, they affect weak minds, so that they appear to them 
to live and breathe,” &c.(e) And in another place: “ For 
that representation of members leads, and, as it were, con- 
strains, the mind, which animates a body, to suppose that 
body to be endued with perception, which it sees to be very 
similar to its own,” &c. And a little after: ‘Idols have more 
inffuence to. bow down an unhappy soul, because they have a 
mouth, eyes, ears, and feet, than to correct it, because they 
neither speak, nor see, nor hear, nor walk.’’ This indeed 
appears to be the reason of John’s exhortation to “keep our- 
selves,” not only from the worship of idols, but “ from idols” 
themselves. And we have found it too true, that, through 
the horrible frenzy, which, almost to the total destruction of 
piety. hath heretofore possessed the world, as soon as images 
are set up in churches, there is, as it were, a standard of idol- 


(e) Epist. 49. De Civ. Dei. lib. iv. cap. 31. 


110 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 1 


atry erected; for the folly of mankind cannot refrain from 
immediately falling into idolatrous worship. But, even if the 
danger were less, yet, when I consider the use for which tem- 
ples were designed, it appears to me extremely unworthy of 
their sanctity, to receive any other images, than those natural 
and expressive ones, which the Lord hath consecrated in his 
word; I mean Baptism, and the Supper of the Lord, and the 
other ceremonies, with which our eyes ought to be more at- 
tentively engaged, and more sensibly affected, than to require 
any others formed by human ingenuity. Behold the incom- 
parable advantages of images! the loss of which, if you believe 
the papists, nothing can compensate. | 

XIV. The remarks already made on this subject, I think, 
would be sufficient, if it were not necessary to take some 
notice of the Council of Nice; not that very celebrated one, 
which was convened by Constantine the Great, but that which 
was held about eight hundred years ago, by the command, 
and under the auspices, of the Empress Irene. For that 
Council decreed, not only that images should be had in. 
churches, but also that they should be worshipped. And, 
notwithstanding what I have advanced, the authority of the 
Council would raise a strong prejudice on the contrary side. 
Though, to confess the truth, I am not much concerned at 
this, as I am to show the reader their extreme madness, whose 
fondness for images exceeded any thing that was becoming 
in Christians. But let us despatch this point first : the present 
advocates for the use of images, allege the authority of that 
Nicene Council in their defence. ‘There is a book extant, 
written in refutation of this practice, under the name of Char- 
lemagne; which, from the diction, we may conclude was com- 
posed at the same time. In this work are recited the opinions 
of the bishops who attended the Council, and the arguments 
they used in the controversy. John, the delegate of the 
Eastern churches, said, ‘‘ God created man in his own image ;”’ 
and hence he inferred that we ought to have images. The 
same prelate thought that images were recommended to us by 
this sentence: “Show me thy face, for it is glorious.” An- 
other, to prove that they ought to be placed on the altars, 
cited this testimony: ‘‘ No man lighteth a candle, and putteth 
it under a bushel.’’ Another, to show the contemplation of 
these to be useful to us, adduced a verse from a Psalm: “‘ The 
light of thy countenance, O Lord, is sealed upon us.” Another 
pressed this comparison into his service: “As the patriarchs 
used the sacrifices of the heathen, so Christians ought to have 
the images of saints, instead of the idols of the heathen.” 
In the same manner they tortured that expression, ‘ Lord, I 
have loved the beauty of thy house.” But the most ingenious 


CHAP. x1.| CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 111 


of all was their interpretation of this passage: ‘‘ As we have 
heard, so have we seen;” that therefore God is known, not 
only by the hearing of his word, but by the contemplation of 
images. Similar is the subtlety of Bishop Theodore: “ God 
is glorious in his saints.”” And in another place it is said, ‘‘ In 
the saints that are in the earth:” therefore this ought to be 
referred to images. But their impertinencies and absurdities 
are so disgusting, that | am quite ashamed to repeat them. 

XV. When they dispute concerning adoration, they bring 
forward Jacob’s worshipping of Pharaoh, and of the staff of 
Joseph, and of the inscription erected by himself; although, 
in this last instance, they not only corrupt the sense of the 
Scripture, but allege what is nowhere to be found. ‘These 
passages also, ‘‘ Worship his footstool ;”’ ‘‘ Worship in his holy 
hill; and, ‘‘ All the rich of the people shall supplicate thy 
face;’’ they consider as apposite and conclusive proofs. If 
any one wished to represent the advocates for images in a 
ridiculous point of view, could he possibly ascribe to them 
greater and grosser instances of folly? But, that no doubt 
of this might remain, Theodosius, bishop of Mira, defends the 
propriety of worshipping images from the dreams of his arch- 
deacon, as seriously as if he had an immediate revelation from 
heaven. Now, let the advocates of images go and urge upon 
us the decree of that Council; as though those venerable fa- 
thers had not entirely destroyed all their credit by such puerile 
treatment of the sacred Scriptures, or such impious and shame- 
ful mutilation of them. 

XVI. I come now to those prodigies of impiety, which it is 
wonderful that they ever ventured to broach; and more won- 
derful still, that they have not been opposed with universal 
detestation. It is right to expose this flagitious madness, that 
the worship of images may at least be deprived of the pretence 
of antiquity, which the papists falsely urge in its favour. 
Theodosius, bishop of Amorum, denounces an anathema 
against all who are averse to the worship of images. Another 
imputes all the calamities of Greece and the East to the crime 
of not having worshipped them. What punishments, then, 
did the Prophets, Apostles, and Martyrs deserve, in whose 
time images were unknown? ‘They add further, If the image 
of the emperor be met by_ processions with perfumes and in- 
cense, much more is this honour due to the images of the saints. 
Constantius, bishop of Constance, in Cyprus, professes his rev- 
erence for images, and avows that he will pay them the same 
worship and honour as is due to the Trinity, the source of all 
life; and whoever refuses to do the same, he anathematizes - 
and dismisses with the Manichees and Marcionites. . And, 
lest you should suppose this to be the private opinion of ar 


112 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooxK 1. 


individual, they all declare their assent to it. John, the dele- 
gate of the Eastern churches, carried by the fervour of his 
zeal to still greater lengths, asserts it to be better to admit all 
the brothels of the world into one city, than to reject the 
worship of images. At length it was unanimously decreed, 
that the Samaritans were worse than all heretics, and that the 
adversaries of images were worse than the Samaritans. But, 
that the farce might not want its usual plaudit, they add this 
clause: ‘‘ Let them rejoice and exult, who have the image of 
Christ, and offer sacrifice to it.” Where is now the distinction 
of latria and dulia, with which they attempt to deceive both 
God and men? For the Council gives the same honour, with- 
out any exception, to images and to the living God. 


CHAPTER XII. 


GOD CONTRADISTINGUISHED FROM IDOLS, THAT HE MAY BE SOLELY 
AND SUPREMELY WORSHIPPED. 


We said, at the beginning, that the knowledge of God consists 
not in frigid speculation, but is accompanied by the worship of 
him. We also cursorily touched on the right method of wor- 
shipping him, which will be more fully explained in other 
places. I now only repeat, in few words, that whenever the 
Scripture asserts that there is but one God, it contends not for 
the bare name, but also teaches, that whatever belongs to the 
Deity, should not be transferred to another. This shows how 
pure religion differs from idolatry. The Greek word sv¢sGaa 
certainly signifies right worship, since even blind mortals, gro- 
ping in the dark, have always perceived the necessity of some 
certain rule, that the worship of God may not be involved 
in disorder and confusion. Although Cicero ingeniously and 
correctly derives the word religion from a verb signifying 
“to read over again,” or “to gather again;’’ yet the rea- 
son he assigns for it, that good worshippers often recollect, 
and diligently reconsider what is true, is forced and far-fetched. 
I rather think the word is opposed to a liberty of wandering 
without restraint ; because the greater part of the world rashly 
embrace whatever they meet with, and also ramble from one 
thing to another; but piety, in order to walk with a steady 
step, collects itself within its proper limits. 'The word super- 
stttion also appears to me to import a discontent with the 
method and order prescribed, and an accumulation of a super- 


CHAP. xtI.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 113 


fluous mass of vain things. But to leave the consideration of 
words, it has been generally admitted, in all ages, that religion 
is corrupted and perverted by errors and falsehoods; whence 
we infer, that when we allow ourselves any thing from incon- 
siderate zeal, the pretext alleged by the superstitious is alto- 
gether frivolous. Although this confession is:in the mouths 
of all, they betray, at the same time, a shameful ignorance, 
neither adhering to the one true God, nor observing any dis- 
crimination in his worship, as we have before shown. But 
God, to assert his own right, proclaims that he is “‘ jealous,” 
and will be a severe avenger, if men confound him with any 
fictitious deity ; and then, to retain mankind in obedience, he 
defines his legitimate worship. He comprises both in his law, 
where he first binds the faithful to himself, as their sole legis- 
lator ; and then prescribes a rule for the right worship of him 
according to his will. Now, of the law, since the uses and 
ends of it are various, I shall treat in its proper place: at 
present, I only remark, that it sets up a barrier to prevent men 
turning aside to corrupt modes of worship. Let us remember, 
what I have already stated, that, unless every thing belonging 
to Divinity remain in God alone, he is spoiled of his honour, 
and his worship is violated. And here it is necessary to ani- 
madvert more particularly on the subtle fallacies of supersti- 
tion. For it revolts not to strange gods, in such a manner as 
to appear to desert the supreme God, or to degrade him to a 
level with others; but, allowing him the highest place, it sur- 
rounds him with a multitude of inferior deities, among whom 
it distributes his honours ; and thus, in a cunning and hypocrit- 
ical manner, the glory of Divinity is divided among many, in- 
stead of remaining wholly:in one. ‘Thus the ancient idolaters, 
Jews as well as Gentiles, imagined one God, the Father and 
Governor of all, and subordinate to him a vast multitude of 
other deities; to whom, in common with the supreme God, 
they attributed the government of heaven and earth. Thus 
the saints, who departed out of this life some ages ago, are 
exalted to the society of God, to be worshipped, and invoked, 
and celebrated like him. We suppose, indeed, the glory of 
God not to be sullied with this abomination; whereas it is, in 
a great measure, suppressed and extinguished, except that we 
retain some faint notion of his supreme power; but, at the 
same time, deceived with such impostures, we are seduced to 
the worship of various deities. 

II. On this account was invented the distinction of latria 
and dulia, as they express themselves, by which they con- 
ceived they might safely ascribe divine honours to angels and 
deceased men. For it is evident, that the worship which pa- 
pists pay to the saints, differs not in reality from the worship 

VOL. I. 


(114 INSTITUTES OF THE {BOOK I. 


of God; for they adore God and them promiscuously; but 
when they are accused of it, they evade the charge with this 
subterfuge, that they preserve inviolate to God what belongs 
to him, because they leave him Aaspaa. But since the ques- 
tion relates to a thing, not to a word, who can bear their care- 
less trifling on the most important of all subjects? But, to pass 
this also, they will gain nothing at last by their distinction, 
but that they render worship to God alone, and service to the 
saints. For Aarpeia, in Greek, signifies the same as cultus in 
Latin, [and worship in English ;| but dovdsa properly signifies 
servitus, [service ;] and yet, in the Scriptures, this distinction is 
sometimes disregarded. But, suppose it to be a constant dis- 
tinction, it remains to be inquired, what is the meaning of 
each term. <Aaspsia is worship ; dovdrsa is service. Now, no 
one doubts, that to serve is more than to worship or honour. 
For it would be irksome to serve many persons, whom you 
would not refuse to honour. So unjust is the distribution, to 
assign the greater to the saints, and leave to God that which is 
less. But many of the ancients, it is urged, have used this 
distinction. What is that td the purpose, if every one per- 
celves it to be not only improper, but altogether frivolous? 
III. Leaving these subtleties, let us consider the subject 
itself. Paul, when he reminds the Galatians what they had 
been before they were illuminated in the knowledge of God, 
says, that they ‘‘did service to them which by nature were no 
gods.”(f) Though he mentions not Aarpem, (worship,) 1s 
their idolatry therefore excusable? He certainly condemns that 
perverse superstition, which he denominates dovaAsia, (service, ) 
equally as much as if he had used the word Aarpem, (worship. ) 
And when Christ repels the assault of Satan with this shield, 
“Tt is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,” (g) 
the word Aaspsia came not into the question; for Satan required 
nothing but spocxuvysig, (prostration, or adoration.) So, when 
John is reprehended by an angel, for having fallen on his 
knees before him, (A) we must not understand that John was 
so stupid as to intend to transfer to an angel the honour due ex- 
clusively to God. But since all worship, that is connected 
with religion, cannot but savour of Divine, he could not 
(tpocxuvew) prostrate himself before the angel, without de- 
tracting from the glory of God. We read, indeed, frequently, 
of men having been worshipped; but that was civil honour, 
so to speak; religion has a different design ; and no sooner is 
religion connected with worship, or homage, than it produces 
a profanation of the Divine honour. We may see the same 
in Cornelius, who had not made such a small progress in 
piety, as not to ascribe supreme worship to God alone. When 


(f) Gal. iv. 8. (g) Matt. iv. 10. (kh) Rev. xix. 10; xxii. 8, 9. 


CHAP. xtt. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 115 


he ‘‘ fell down” before Peter, therefore, it certainly was not 
with an intention of worshipping him instead of God: (7) yet 
Peter positively forbade him to do it. And why was this, 
but because men never so particularly distinguish between the 
worship or homage of God, and that of the creatures, as to 
avoid transferring to a creature what belongs exclusively to 
God? Wherefore, if we desire to have but one God, let us 
remember, that his glory ought not, in the least, to be dimin- 
ished; but that he must retain all that belongs to him. 
Therefore Zechariah, when speaking of the restoration of the 
Church, expressly declares, not only that ‘‘there shall be one 
Lord,” but also ‘‘ that his name shall be one ; ” (4) signifying, 
without doubt, that he will have nothing in common with 
idols.) Now, what kind of worship God requires, will be 
seen, in due course, in another place. For he hath been 
pleased, in his law, to prescribe to mankind what is lawful 
and right ; and so to confine them to a certain rule, that every 
individual might not take the liberty of inventing a mode of 
worship according to his own fancy. But, since it is not 
proper to burden the reader, by confounding many subjects 
together, I shall not enter on that point yet; let it suffice to 
know, that no religious services can be transferred to any 
other than God alone, without committing sacrilege. At first, 
indeed, superstition ascribed Divine honours either to the sun, 
or to the other stars, or to idols. Afterwards followed am- 
bition, which, adorning men with the spoils of God, dared to 
profane every thing that was sacred. And although there re- 
mained a persuasion, that they ought to worship a supreme 
God, yet it became customary to offer sacrifices promiscuously 
to genii, and inferior deities, and deceased heroes. So steep 
is the descent to this vice, to communicate to a vast multitude 
that which God particularly cliallenges to himself alone! 


CHAPTER XIII. 


ONE DIVINE ESSENCE, CONTAINING THREE PERSONS, TAUGHT IN 
THE SCRIPTURES FROM THE BEGINNING. 


Wuar is taught in the Scriptures concerning the immensity 
and spirituality of the essence of God, should serve not only to 
overthrow the foolish notions of the vulgar, but also to refute 
the subtleties of profane philosophy. One of the ancients, (/) 


(i) Acts x. 25. (k) Zech. xiv.9. - (1) Seneca, Pref. lib. 1. Quest. Nat. 


116 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1 


in his own conception very shrewdly, said, that whatever we 
see, and whatever we do not see, is God. But he imagined 
that the Deity was diffused through every part of the world. 
But, although God, to keep us within the bounds of sobriety, 
speaks but rarely of his essence, yet, by those two attributes, 
which I have mentioned, he supersedes all gross imaginations, 
and represses the presumption of the human mind. For, sure- 
ly, his immensity ought to inspire us with awe, that we may not 
attempt to measure him with our senses; and the spirituality 
of his nature prohibits us from entertaining any earthly or car- 
nal speculations concerning him. for the same reason, he re- 
presents his residence to be “in heaven ;”’ for though, as he is 
incomprehensible, he fills the earth also; yet, seeing that our 
minds, from their dulness, are continually dwelling on the earth, 
in order to shake off our sloth and inactivity, he properly raises 
us above the world. And here is demolished the error of the 
Manichees, who, by maintaining the existence of two original 
principles, made the devil, as it were, equal to God. ‘This cer- 


tainly was both dividing the unity of God, and limiting his im- — 


mensity. For their daring to abuse certain testimonies of 
Scripture betrayed a shameful ignorance; as the error itself 
evidenced an execrable madness. ‘The Anthropomorphites also, 
“who imagined God to be corporeal, because the Scripture fre- 
quently ascribes to him a mouth, ears, eyes, hands, and feet, are 
easily refuted. For who, even of the meanest capacity, under- 
> stands not, that God lisps, as it were, with us, just as nurses 
are accustomed to speak to infants? Wherefore, such forms of 
expression do not clearly explain the nature of God, but ac- 
commodate the knowledge of him to our narrow capacity ; to 
accomplish which, the Scripture must necessarily descend far 
below the height of his majesty. 

II. But he also designates himself by another peculiar charac- 
ter, by which he may be yet more clearly distinguished; for, 
while he declares himself to be but One, he proposes himself to 
be distinctly considered in Three Persons, without apprehending 
which, we have only a bare and empty name of God floating in 


our brains, without any idea of the true God. Now, that no 


one may vainly dream of three gods, or suppose that the simple 
essence of God is divided among the three Persons, we must 
seek for a short and easy definition, which will preserve us 
from all error. But since some violently object to the word 
Person, as of human invention, we must first examine the rea- 
sonableness of this objection. When the Apostle denominates 
the Son the express image of the hypostasis of the Father, he 
undoubtedly ascribes to the F'ather some subsistence, in which 
he differs from the Son. For to understand this word as sy- 
nonymous with Essence, (as some interpreters have done, as 


CHAP. XIII. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 117 


though Christ, like wax impressed with a seal, represented in 
himself the substance of the Father,) were not only harsh, but 
also absurd. For the essence of God being simple and indivisi- 
ble, he who contains all in himself, not in part, or by derivation, 
but im complete perfection, could not, without impropriety, 
and even absurdity, be called the express image of it. But since 
the Father, although distinguished by his own peculiar property, 
hath expressed himself entirely in his Son, it is with the great- 
est reason asserted that he hath made his hypostasis conspic- 
uous im him; with which the other appellation, given him in 
the same passage, of “the brightness of his glory,” exactly 
. corresponds. From the words of the Apostle, we certainly 
conclude, that there is in the Father a proper hypostasis, which 
is conspicuous.in the Son. And thence also we easily infer 
the hypostasis of the Son, which distinguishes him from the 
Father. ‘The same reasoning is applicable to the Holy Spirit ; 
for we shall soon prove him also to be God; and yet he must, 
of necessity, be considered as distinct from the Father. But 
this is not a distinction of the essence, which it is unlawful to 
represent as any other than simple and undivided. It follows, 
therefore, if the testimony of the Apostle be credited, that there 
are in God three hypostases. And, as the Latins have ex- 
pressed the same thing by the word person, it is too fastidious 
and obstinate to contend about so clear a matter. If we wish 
to translate word for word, we may call it swbhsistence. Many, 
in the same sense, have called it substance. Nor has the word 
person been used by the Latins only; but the Greeks also, for 
the sake of testifying their consent to this doctrine, taught the 
existence of three spotwra(persons)in God. But both Greeks 
and Latins, notwithstanding any verbal difference, are in perfect 
harmony respecting the doctrine itself. 

III. Now, though heretics rail at the word person, or some 
morose and obstinate men clamorously refuse to admit a name 
of human invention; since they cannot make us assert that 
there are three, each of whom is entirely God, nor yet that 
there are more gods than one, how very unreasonable is it to 
reprobate words which express nothing but what is testified and 
recorded in the Scriptures! It were better, say they, to restrain 
not only our thoughts, but our expressions also, within the 
limits of the Scripture, than to introduce exotic words, which 
may generate future dissensions and disputes; for thus we 
weary ourselves with verbal controversies; thus the truth is 
lost in altercation; thus charity expires in odious contention. 
If they call every word exotic, which cannot be found in the 
Scriptures in so many syllables, they impose on us a law which 
is very unreasonable, and which condemns all interpretation, 
but what is composed of detached texts of Scripture connected 


118 . INSTITUTES OF THE [ROOK 1, 


together. But if by exotic they mean that which is curiously 
contrived, and superstitiously defended, which tends to conten- 
tion more than to edification, the use of which is either unsea- 
sonable or unprofitable, which offends pious ears with its harsh- 
ness, and seduces persons from the simplicity of the Divine 
word, I most cordially embrace their modest opinion. For I 
think that we ought to speak of God with the same religious cau- 
tion, which should govern our thoughts of him; since all the 
thoughts that we entertain concerning him merely from our- 
selves, are foolish, and all our expressions absurd. But there 
is a proper medium to be observed: we should seek in the 
Scriptures a certain rule, both for thinking and for speaking ; 
by which we may regulate all the thoughts of our minds, and 
all the words of our mouths. But what forbids our expressing, 
in plainer words, those things which, in the Scriptures, are, to 
our understanding, intricate and obscure, provided our expres- 
sions religiously and faithfully convey the true sense of the 
Scripture, and are used with modest caution, and not without 
sufficient occasion? Of this, examples sufficiently numerous 
are not wanting. But, when it shall have been proved, that 
the Church was absolutely necessitated to use the terms Trinity 
and Persons, if any one then censures the novelty of the words, 
may he not be justly considered as offended at the light of the 
truth? as having no other cause of censure, but that the truth 
is explained and elucidated ? his 
IV. But such verbal novelty (if it must have this appella- 
tion) is principally used, when the truth is to be asserted in 
Opposition to malicious cavillers, who elude it by crafty eva- 
sions ; of which we have too much experience in the present 
day, who find great difficulty in refuting the enemies of pure 
and sound doctrine: possessed of serpentine lubricity, they 
escape by the most artful expedients, unless they are vigor- 
ously pursued, and held fast when once caught. Thus the 
ancients, pestered with various controversies against erroneous 
dogmas, were constrained to express their sentiments with the 
utmost perspicuity, that they might leave no subterfuges to 
the impious, who availed themselves of obscure expressions, 
for the concealment of their errors. Unable to resist the clear 
testimonies of the Scriptures, Arius confessed Christ to be 
God, and the Son of God ; and, as though this were all that 
was necessary, he pretended to agree with the Church at large. 
But, at the same time, he continued to maintain that Christ 
was created, and had a beginning like other creatures. T'o 
draw the versatile subtlety of this man from its concealment, 
the ancient Fathers proceeded further, and declared Christ to 
be the eternal Son of the Father, and consubstantial with the 
Father. Here impiety openly discovered itself, when the Arians 


el A he 


CHAP. xu. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 119 


began inveterately to hate and execrate the name éyoodews, (con- 
substantial.) But if, in the first instance, they had sincerely 
and cordially confessed Christ to be God, they would not have 
denied him to be consubstantial with the Father. Who can 
dare to censure those good men, as quarrelsome and conten- 
tious, for having kindled such a flame of controversy, and dis- 
turbed the peace of the Church on account of one little word? 
That little word distinguished Christians, who held the pure 
faith, from sacrilegious Arians. Afterwards arose Sabellius, 
who considered the names of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, 
as little more than empty sounds; arguing, that they were 
not used on account of any real distinction, but were different 
attributes of God, whose attributes of this kind are numerous. 
If the point came to be controverted, he confessed, that he 
believed the Father to be God, the Son God, and the Holy 
Spirit God ; but he would readily evade all the force of this 
confession, by adding, that he had said no other than if he 
had called God potent, and just, and wise. And thus he came’ 
to another conclusion, that the Father is the Son, and that the 
Holy Spirit is the Father, without any order or distinction. 
The good doctors of that age, who had the interest of religion 
at heart, in order to counteract the wickedness of this man, 
maintained, on the contrary, that they ought really to ac- 
knowledge three peculiar properties in one God. And, to 
defend themselves against his intricate subtleties, by the plain 
and simple truth, they affirmed, that they truly subsisted in 
the one God; or, what is the same, that in the unity of God 
there subsisted a trinity of Persons. 

VY. If, then, the words have not been rashly invented, we 
should beware lest we be convicted of fastidious temerity in 
rejecting them. I could wish them, indeed, to be buried in 
oblivion, provided this faith were universally received, that 
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, are the one God; and that 
nevertheless the Son is not the Father, nor the Spirit the Son, 
but that they are distinguished from each other by some pe- 
culiar property. Iam not so rigidly precise as to be fond of 
contending for mere words. For I observe that the ancients, 
who otherwise speak on these subjects with great piety, are 
not consistent with each other, nor, in all cases, with themselves. 
For what forms of expression, adopted by councils, does 
Hilary excuse! To what extremes does Augustine some- 
times proceed! How different are the Greeks from the 
Latins! But of this variation, let one example suffice : when 
the Latins would translate the word 6poodciws, they called it 
consubstantial, signifying the.substance of the Father and the 
Son to be one, and thus using substance for essence. Whence 
also Jerome, writing to Damasus, pronounces it to be sacrilege 


120 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK “. ° 


to. say that there are three substances in God. Yet, that there 
are three substances in God, you will find asserted in Hilary 
more than a hundred times. But how perplexed is Jerome 
on the word hypostasis! For he suspects some latent poison 
in the assertion, that there are three hypostases in God. And 
if any one uses this word in a pious sense, he refrains not from 
calling 1t an improper expression ; if, indeed, he was sincere 
in this declaration, and did not rather knowingly and wilfully 
endeavour to asperse, with a groundless calumny, the bishops 
of the East, whom he hated. He certainly discovers not much 
ingenuousness in affirming that, in all the profane schools, 
odgia (essence) is the same as trécracis, (hypostasis,) which the 
trite and common use of the words universally contradicts. 
More modesty and liberality are discovered by Augustine, 
who, though he asserts that the word hypostasis, in this sense, 
is new to Latin ears, yet Jeaves the Greeks their usual phra- 
seology, and even peaceably tolerates the Latins, who had im- 
itated their language; and the account of Socrates, in the 
sixth book of his Tripartite History, seems to imply, that it was 
by ignorant men that it had first been improperly applied to this 
subject. ‘The same Hilary accuses the heretics of a great 
crime, in constraining him, by their wickedness, to expose to 
_ the danger of human language those things which ought to 
be confined within the religion of the mind; plainly avowing 
that this is to do things unlawful, to express things mexpressible, 
to assume things not conceded. A little after, he largely ex- 
cuses himself for his boldness in bringing forward new terms ; 
for, when he has used the names of nature, Father, Son, and 
Spirit, he immediately adds, that whatever is sought further, 
is beyond. the signification of language, beyond the reach of 
our senses, beyond the conception of our understanding. And, 
in another place, he pronounces that happy were the bishops 
of Gaul, who had neither composed, nor received, nor even 
known, any other confession but that ancient and very simple 
one, which had been received in all the churches from the 
days of the Apostles. Very similar is the exeuse of Augustine, 
that this word was extorted by necessity, on account of the 
poverty of human language on so great a subject, not for the 
sake of expressing what God is, but to avoid passing it over 
in total silence, that the Father, Son, and Spirit are three. 
This moderation of those holy men should teach us, not to 
pass such severe censures on those who are unwilling to sub- 
scribe to expressions adopted by us, provided they are not 
actuated by pride, perverseness, or disingenuous subtlety. But 
let them also, on the other hand, consider the great necessity 
which constrains us to use such language, that, by degrees, 
they may at length be accustomed to a useful phraseology 


ae, 


CHAP. X11. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 121 


Let them also learn to beware, since we have to oppose the 
Arians on one side, and the Sabellians on the other, lest, while 
they take offence at both these parties being deprived of all 
opportunity of evasion, they cause some suspicion that they 
are themselves the disciples either of Arius or of Sabellius. 
Arius confesses, ‘‘that Christ is God;” but maintains also, 
“that he was created, and:hadabeginning.”” He acknowledges 
that Christ is ‘one with the Father ;” but secretly whispers 
in the ears of his disciples, that he is ‘united to him,” like 
the rest of the faithful, though by a singular privilege.’ Say 
that he is consubstantial, you tear off the mask from the 
hypocrite, and yet you add nothing to the Scriptures. Sa- 
bellius asserts, ‘‘ that the names Father, Son, and Spirit, are 
expressive of no distinction in the Godhead.” Say that they 
are three, and he will exclaim, that you are talking of “three 
gods.” Say, ‘that in the one essence of God there is a trinity 
of Persons,” and you will at once express what the Scriptures 
declare, and will restrain such frivolous loquacity. Now, if 
any persons are prevented, by such excessive scrupulousness, 
from admitting these terms, yet not one of them can deny, 
that, when the Scripture speaks of one God, it should be un- 
derstood of a unity of substance; and that, when it speaks 
of three in one essence, it denotes the Persons in this trinity. 
When this is honestly confessed, we have no further concern 
about words. But I have found, by long. and frequent ex- 
perience, that those who pertinaciously contend about words, 
cherish some latent poison; so that it were better designedly 
to provoke their resentment, than to use obscure language for 
the sake of obtaining their favour. 

VI. But, leaving the dispute about terms, I shall now enter 
on the discussion of the subject itself. What I denominate a 
Person, is a subsistence in the Divine essence, which is re- 
lated to the others, and yet distinguished from them by an in- 
communicable property. By the word subsistence we mean 
something different from the word essence. For, if the Word 
were simply God, and had no peculiar property, John had 
been guilty of impropriety in saying that he was always with 
God. (1) When he immediately adds, that the Word also was 
God, he reminds us of the unity of the essence. But because 
he could not be with G'od, without subsisting in the Father, 
hence arises that subsistence, which, although inseparably con- 
nected with the essence, has a peculiar mark, by which it is 
distinguished from it. Now, I say that each of the three sub- 
sistences has a relation to the others, but is distinguished from 
them by a peculiar property. We particularly use the word 


(2) John i. 1. 
VOL. I. 16 


122 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK I. 


relation, (or comparison,) here, because, when mention 1s made 
simply and indefinitely of God, this name pertains no less to 
the Son and Spirit, than to the Father. But whenever the 
Father is compared with the Son, the property peculiar to 
each distinguishes him from the other. ‘Thirdly, whatever 
is proper to each of them, I assert to be incommunicable, be- 
cause whatever is ascribed to the Father as a character of 
distinction, cannot be applied or transferred to the Son. Nor 
indeed, do I disapprove of the definition of Tertullian, if rightly 
understood: ‘That there is in God a certain distribution or 
economy, which makes no change in the unity of the essence.” 

VII. But before I proceed any further, I must prove the 
Deity of the Son and of the Holy Spirit; after which we 
shall'see how they differ from each other. When the Scrip- 
ture speaks of the Word of Grod, it certainly were very absurd 
to imagine it to be only a transient and momentary sound, 
emitted into the air, and coming forth from God himself; of 
which nature were the oracles, given to the fathers, and all 
the prophecies. It is rather to be understood of the eternal 
wisdom residing in God, whence the oracles, and all the 
prophecies, proceeded. For, according to the testimony. of 
Peter, (7) the ancient Prophets spake by the Spirit of Christ 
no less than the Apostles and all the succeeding ministers of 
the heavenly doctrine. But, as Christ had not yet been man- 
ifested, we must necessarily understand that the Word was 
begotten of the Father before the world began. And if the 
Spirit that inspired the Prophets was the Spirit of the Word, 
we conclude, beyond all doubt, that the Word was truly God. 
And this is taught by Moses, with sufficient perspicuity, in the 
creation of the world, in which he represents the Word as 
acting such a conspicuous part. For why does he relate that 
God, in the creation of each of his works, said, Let this or that 
be done, but that the unsearchable glory of God may resplen- 
dently appear in his image? Captious and loquacious men 
would readily evade this argument, by saying, that the Word 
imports an order or command ; but the Apostles’ are better in- 
terpreters, who declare, that the worlds were created by the 
Son, and that he “upholds all things by the word of his 
power.’ (m) For here we see that the Word intends the nod 
or mandate of the Son, who is himself the eternal and essential 
Son of the Father. Nor, to the wise and sober, is there any 
obscurity in that passage of Solomon, where he introduces 
Wisdom as begotten of the Father before time began, and pre- 
siding at the creation of the world, and over all the works of 
God. or, to pretend that this denotes some temporary ex- 


(m) 1 Pet.i. 11. (n) Heb. i. 2, 3. 


CHAP. XIII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 123 


pression of the will of God, were foolish and frivolous ; where- 
as God then intended t) discover his fixed and eternal counsel, 
and even something more secret. ‘To the same purpose also 
is that assertion of Christ, “‘ My Father worketh hitherto, and 
I work.” (0) For, by affirming that, from the beginning of 
the world, he had continually codperated with the Father, he 
makes a more explicit declaration of what had been briefly 
glanced at by Moses. We conclude, therefore, that God spake 
thus at the creation, that the Word might have his part in the 
work, and so that operation be common to both. But John 
speaks more clearly than all others, when he represents the 
Word, who from the beginning was God with God, as in 
union with the Father, the original cause of all things. For 
to the Word he both attributes a real and permanent essence, 
and assigns some peculiar property; and plainly shows how 
God, by speaking, created the world. ‘Therefore, as all Divine 
revelations are justly entitled the word of God, so we ought 
chiefly to esteem that substantial Word the source of all re- 
velations, who is liable to no variation, who remains with God 
perpetually one and the same, and who is God himself. 

VIII. Here we are interrupted by some ciamorous objectors, 
who, since they cannot openly rob him of his divinity, secretly 
steal from him his eternity. For they say, that the Word only 
began to exist, when God opened his sacred mouth in the cre- 
ation of the world. But they are too inconsiderate in imagin- 
ing something new in the substance of God. For, as those 
names of God, ‘which relate to his external works, began to be 
ascribed to him after the existence of those works, as when he 
is called the Creator of heaven and earth, so piety neither ac- 
knowledges nor admits any name, signifying that God has 
found any thing new to happen to himself. For, could any 
thing, from any quarter, effect a change in him, it would contra- 
dict the assertion of James, that “‘ every good sift and every per- 
fect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of 
lights, with whom is no variableness or shadow of turning.” (p) 
Nothing, then, is more intolerable, than to suppose a beginning 
of that Word, ‘which was always God, and afterwards the Cre- 
ator of the world. But they argue, in their own apprehension 
most acutely, that Moses, by representing God as having 
then spoken for the first time, implies also, that there was no 
Word in him before; than which nothing is more absurd. For 
it is not to be concluded, because any thing begins to be man- 
ifested at a certain time, that it had no prior existence. I form 
avery different conclusion ; that, since, in the very instant when 
God said, ‘‘Let there be light,’ (q)the power of the Word 


(0) John v. 17. (p) James i. 17. (g) Gen.1. 3. 


124 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK 1. 


was clearly manifested, the Word must have existed long before. 
But if any one inquires, how long, he will find no beginning. 
For he limits no certain period of time, when he himself says, 
‘OQ Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the 
glory which I had with thee before the world was.” (r) Nor 
is this omitted by John; for, before he descends to the creation 
of the world, he declares that the Word ‘“ was in the beginning 
with God.’ (s) We therefore conclude again, that the Word, 
conceived of God before time began, perpetually remained with 
him, which proves his eternity, his true essence, and his divinity. 

IX. Though I advert not yet to the person of the Mediator, 
but defer it to that part of the work which will relate to re- 
demption, yet, since it ought, without controversy, to be believed 
by all, that Christ is the very same Word clothed in flesh, any 
testimonies which assert the Deity of Christ, will be very prop- 
erly introduced here. When it is said, in the forty-fifth Psalm, 
“Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever,” the Jews endeav- 
our to evade its force, by pleading that the name Elohim is ap- 
plicable also to angels, and to men of dignity and power. But 
there cannot be found in the Scripture a similar passage, which 
erects an eternal throne for a creature; for he is not merely 
called God, but is also declared to possess an eternal dominion. 
Besides, this title is never given to a creature, without some 
addition, as when it is said that Moses should be “a god to 
Pharaoh.” (¢) Some read it in the genitive case, “'Thy throne 
is of God,” which is extremely insipid. I confess, indeed, that 
what is eminently and singularly excellent, is frequently called 
Divine ; but it sufficiently appears from the context, that such 
a meaning would be uncouth and forced, and totally imappli- 
cable here. But, if their perverseness refuse to yield this point, 
there certainly is no obscurity in Isaiah, where he introduces 
Christ as God, and as crowned with supreme power, which is 
the prerogative of God alone. ‘‘ His name,” says he, “shall be 
called the Mighty God, the Father of eternity,” &c. (v) Here 
also the Jews object, and invert the reading of the passage in 
this manner: ‘This is the name by which the mighty God, 
the Father of eternity, shall call him,” &c.; so that they 
would leave the Son only the title of Prince of peace. But to 
what purpose would so many epithets be accumulated in this 
passage on God the Father, when the design of the prophet is 
to distinguish Christ by such eminent characters as may estab- 
lish our faith in him? Wherefore, there can be no doubt that 
he is there denominated the Mighty God, just as, a little before, 
he is called Immanuel. But nothing can be required plainer 
than a passage in Jeremiah, that this should be the name 


(r) John xvii. 5. (s) John i. 2. (t) Exod. vii. 1. (v) Isaiah ix. 6, 


CHAP. XIII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 125 


whereby the Branch of David shall be called ‘‘ Jehovah our 
righteousness.” (w) For since the Jews themselves teach, that all 
other names of God are mere epithets, but that this alone, which 
they call ineffable, is a proper name expressive of his Essence, 
we conclude, that the Son is the one eternal God, who declares, 
in another place, that he ‘‘ will not give his glory to another.” (7) 
This also they endeavour to evade, because Moses imposed 
this name on an altar which he built, and Ezekiel on the city 
of the new Jerusalem. But who does not perceive, that the 
altar was erected as a monument of Moses having been exalted 
by God, and that Jerusalem is honoured with the name of God, 
-only as a testimony of the Divine presence? For thus speaks 
the prophet: “The name of the city shall be, Jehovah is 
there.” (y) But Moses expresses himself thus: He ‘built an 
altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-nissi,” (my exalta- 
tion.)(z) But there is more contention about another passage 
of Jeremiah, where the same title is given to Jerusalem in these 
words: ‘‘ This is the name wherewith she shall be called, Je- 
hovah our righteousness.” (a) But this testimony is so far 
from opposing the truth which we are defending, that it rather 
confirms it.. For, having before testified that Christ is the true 
Jehovah, from whom righteousness proceeds, he now pro- 
nounces that the church will have such a clear apprehension of 
it, as to be able to glory in the same name. In the former 
place, then, is shown the original cause of righteousness, in the 
latter the effect. 

X. Now, if these things do not satisfy the Jews, Isee not by 
what cavils they can evade the accounts of Jehovah having so. 
frequently appeared in the character of an angel. An angel is 
said to have appeared to the holy fathers.. He claims for him- 
self the name of the eternal God. If it be objected, that this is 
spoken with regard to the character which he sustains, this by 
no means removes the difficulty. For a servant would never 
rob God of his honour, by permitting sacrifice to be offered to 
himself. But the angel, refusing to eat bread, commands a 
sacrifice to be offered to Jehovah. He afterwards demonstrates 
that he is really Jehovah himself. Therefore Manoah and his 
wife conclude, from this evidence, that they have seen, not a 
mere angel, but God himself. Hence he says, ‘‘ We shall surely 
die, because we have seen God.” When his wife replies, “If 
the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have received ”’ 
a sacrifice “at our hands,”’ (b) she clearly acknowledges him to 
be God, who before is called an angel. Moreover, the reply of the 
angel himself removes every doubt: ‘‘ Why askest thou after 
my name, seeing it is wonderful?’ So much the more detes- 


(w) Jer. xxiii. 6. (y) Ezek. xlviti. 35. (a) Jer. xxxiil. 16. 
(z) Isaiah xlii. 3. (z) Exod. xvii. 15. (b) Judges xiii. 22, 23. 


126 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK I. 


table is the impiety of Servetus, in asserting that God never 
appeared to Abraham and. the other patriarchs, but that they 
worshipped an angel in his stead. But the orthodox doctors of 
the church have truly and wisely understood and taught, that 
the same chief angel was the Word of God, who even then be- 
gan to perform some services introductory to his execution of 
the office of Mediator. For though he was not yet incarnate, 
he descended, as it were, in a mediatorial capacity, that he 
might approach the faithful with greater familiarity. His fa- 
miliar intercourse with men gave him the name of an angel; 
yet he still retained what properly belonged to him, and con- 
tinued the ineffably glorious God. ‘The same truth is attested 
by Hosea, who, after relating the wrestling of Jacob with an 
angel, says, “‘'The Lord (Jehovah) God of hosts; Jehovah is 
his memorial.” (¢) Servetus again cavils, that God employed 
the person of an angel; as though the prophet did not confirm 
what had been delivered by Moses, — ‘‘ Wherefore is it that thou 
dost ask after my name?” And the confession of the holy pa- 
triarch, when he says, “I have seen God face to face,’ (d) 
sufficiently declares, that he was not a created angel, but one 
in whom resided the fulness of Deity. Hence, also, the repre- 
sentation of Paul, that Christ was the conductor of the people 
in the wilderness; because, though the time of his humiliation 
was not yet arrived, the eternal Word then exhibited a type of 
the office to which he was appointed. Now, if the second chap- 
ter of Zechariah be strictly and coolly examined, the angel who 
sends another angel is immediately pronounced the God of hosts, 
and supreme power is ascribed to him. I omit testimonies in- 
numerable on which our faith safely rests, although they have 
little influence on the Jews. For when it is said in Isaiah, ‘“ Lo, 
this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us; 
this is Jehovah ;’’(e) all who have eyes may perceive that this 
is God, who arises for the salvation of his people. And the 
emphatical repetition of these pointed expressions forbids an 
application of this passage to any other than to Christ. But still 
more plain and decisive is a passage of Malachi, where he proph- 
esies, that “the Lord, who was then sought, should come 
into his temple.” (f) The temple was exclusively consecrated to 
the one Most High God ; yet the prophet claims it as belonging 
to Christ. Whence it follows, that he is the same God that was 
always worshipped among the Jews. 

XI. The New Testament abounds with innumerable tes- 
timonies. We must, therefore, endeavour briefly to select a 
few, rather than to collect them all. Though the Apostles 
spake of him after he had appeared in flesh as the Mediator 


(c) Hosea xii, 5. (e) Isaiah xxv. 9. 
(d) Gen. xxxii. 29, 30. (f) Mal. ii. 1. 


CHAP. XII] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 127 


yet all that I shall adduce will be adapted to prove his eternal 
Deity. In the first place, it is worthy of particular observa- 
tion, that the apostle represents those things which were pre- 
dicted concerning the eternal God, as either already exhibited 
in Christ, or to be accomplished in him at some future period. 
The prediction of Isaiah, that the Lord of Hosts would be 
‘“‘for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence to both 
the houses of Israel,’’(g) Paul asserts to have been fulfilled 
in Christ. (i) Therefore he declares, that Christ is the Lord 
of Hosts. There is a similar instance in another place: “‘ We 
shall all stand,” says he, ‘‘ before the judgment-seat of Christ. © 
For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall 
bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.’’(z) Since 
God, in Isaiah, (4) declares this concerning himself, and Christ 
actually exhibits it in his own person, it follows, that he is 
that very God, whose glory cannot be transferred to another. 
The apostle’s quotation from the Psalms also, in his Epistle 
to the Ephesians, is evidently applicable to none but God: 
‘When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive : ” (2) 
understanding that ascension to have been prefigured by the 
_ exertions of the Divine power in the signal victories of David 
over the heathen nations, he signifies, that the text was more 
fully accomplished in Christ. Thus John attests that it was 
the glory of the Son which was revealed in a vision to Isaiah ; 
whereas the prophet himself records that he saw the majesty 
of God.(m) And those praises which the Apostle, in the 
Kpistle to the Hebrews, ascribes to the Son, beyond all doubt 
most evidently belong to God: ‘‘ Thou, Lord, in the begin- 
ning, hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the* heavens 
are the works of thine hands,” &c. Again, ‘ Let all the 
angels of God worship him.” (n) Nor is it any misapplication 
of them, when he refers them to Christ; since all that is pre- 
dicted in those Psalms has been accomplished only by him. 
For it was He who arose and had mercy upon Zion; it was 
He who claimed as his own the dominion over all nations and 
islands. And why should John, after having affirmed, at the 
commencement of his Gospel, (0) that the Word was always 
God, have hesitated to attribute to Christ the majesty of God? 
And why should Paul have been afraid to place Christ on the » 
tribunal of God,(p) after having so publicly preached his 
Divinity, when he called him ‘God blessed for ever?” (q) 
And, to show how consistent he is with himself on this sub- 
ject, he says, also, that ‘‘God was manifest in the flesh.” (7) 


(g) Isaiah viii. 14. (1) Eph. iv. 8. Psalm Ixvii. 18. (p) 2 Cor. v. 10. 
(hk) Rom. ix. 33. (m) John xii. 41. Isaiah vi. 1. (q) Rom. ix. 5. 
(7) Rom. xiv. 10,11. —(m) Heb. i. 6, 10. (r) 1 Tim. iii. 16. 


(k) Isaiah xlv. 23. (0) John i. 1, 14. 


128 INSTITUTES OF THE [sooK 1 


If he is ‘“‘ God blessed for ever,” he is the same to whom this 
apostle, in another place, affirms all glory and honour to be 
due. And he conceals not, but openly proclaims, that, “‘ being 


in the form of God,” he “thought it not robbery to be equal’ 


with God, but made himself of no reputation.” (s) And, lest 
the impious might object, that he is a sort of artificial God, 
John goes further, and affirms, that ‘This is the true God, 
and eternal life ;”’ (t) although we ought to be fully satisfied 
by his being called God, especially by a witness who expressly 
avers that there are no more gods than one; I mean Paul, who 
says, ‘‘ though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven 
or in earth; to us there is but one God, of whom are all 
things.” (v) When we hear, from the same mouth, that 
‘‘God was manifested in the flesh,” that ‘‘God hath purchased 
the Church with his own blood,’— why do we imagine a 
second God, whom he by no means acknowledges? And 
there is no doubt that all the pious were of the same opinion. 


Thomas, likewise, by publicly confessing him to be “his_ 


Lord and God,” declares him to be the same true God whom 
he had always worshipped. (w) 

XII. If we judge of his Divinity from the works which the 
Scriptures attribute to him, it will thence appear with increas- 
ing evidence. For when he said, that he had, from the be- 
ginning, continually codperated with the Father, the Jews, 
stupid as they were about his other declarations, yet perceived, 
that he assumed to himself Divine power; and, therefore, as 
John informs us, they ‘sought the more to kill him; because 
he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God 
was his Father, making himself equal with God.” (x) How 
great, then, must be our stupidity, if we perceive not this 
passage to be a plain assertion of his Divinity! ‘To preside 
over the world by his almighty providence, and to govern 
all things by the nod of his own power, (which the Apostle 
attributes to him,)(y) belongs exclusively to the Creator. 
And he participates with the Father, not only in the govern- 
ment of the world, but also in all other offices, which cannot 
be communicated to creatures. The Lord proclaims, by the 
prophet, ‘I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions, 
for mine own sake.’ (z) According to this declaration, when 
the Jews thought that Christ committed an injury against God, 
by undertaking to forgive sins,(@) he not only asserted in 
express terms, that this power belonged to him, but proved it 
by a miracle. We see, therefore, that he hath not the min- 
stry, but the power of remission of sins, which the Lord de- 


(s) Philip. ii. 6. (w) John xx. 28. (z) Isaiah xliii. 25. 
(t) 1 John v. 20. (x) John v. 18. (a) Matt. ix. 6. 
(v) 1 Cor. vii. 5, 6. (y) Heb. i. 3. 


et hae - 


CHAP. XIII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 129 


clares shall never be transferred from himself to another. Is 
it not the prerogative of God alone to examine and penetrate 
the secret thoughts of the heart? Yet Christ possessed that 
power; which is a proof of his Divinity. 

XII. But with what perspicuity of evidence does it appear 
in his miracles! Though I grant that the Prophets and 
Apostles performed miracles similar and equal to his, yet 
there is a considerable difference in this respect, that they, in 
their ministry, dispensed the favours of God, whereas his 
miracles were performed by his exertions of his own power. 
He sometimes, indeed, used prayer, that he might glorify the 
Father; but, in most instances, we perceive the manifest 
displays of his own power. And how should not he be the 
true author of miracles, who, by his own authority, committed 
the dispensation of them to others? For the Evangelists 
relate, that he gave his Apostles power to raise the dead, to 
heal the leprous, to cast out devils, &c.(b) And they per- 
formed that ministry in such a manner, as plainly to discover, 
that the power proceeded solely from Christ. ‘In the name 
of Jesus Christ,” says Peter, ‘‘arise and walk.’’(c) It is no 
wonder, therefore, that Christ should bring forward his mir- 
acles, (d) to convince the incredulity of the Jews, since, being 
performed by his own power, they afforded most ample evi- 
dence of his Divinity. Besides, if out of God there be no sal- 
vation, no righteousness, no life, but Christ contains all these 
things in himself, it certainly demonstrates him to be God. 
Let it not be objected, that life and salvation are infused into 
him by God; for he is not said to have received salvation, 
but to be himself salvation. And if no one be good but God 
alone, (e) how can he be a mere man who is, I will not say 
good and righteous, but goodness and righteousness itself? 
Even from the beginning of the creation, according to the 
testimony of an Evangelist, ‘in him was life; and the life” 
then existed as ‘‘the light of men.” Supported by such proofs, 
therefore, we venture to repose our faith and hope on him; 
whereas we know that it is impious and sacrilegious for any 
man to place his confidence in creatures. He says, ‘‘ Ye be- 
lieve in God, believe also in me.’ (f') And in this sense Paul 
interprets two passages of Isaiah — ‘‘ Whosoever believeth on 
him shall not be ashamed.” Again, ‘‘ There shall be a root 
of Jesse, that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall . 
the Gentiles trust.”’(2@) And why should we search for more 
testimonies from Scripture, when this declaration occurs so fre- 
quently, “‘ He that believeth on me hath everlasting life”? ?(h) 


(6) Matt. x. 8. Mark iii. 15. (c) Acts in. 6. (d) John v. 36; x. 37. 
(e) Matt. xix. 17. (f) John xiv. 1. 
(g) Isaiah xxviii. 16; xi. 10. Rom. x. 11; xv. 12. (h) John vi. 47. 


VOL. I. 17 


130 INSTITUTES OF “THE [Boon 1. 


The invocation, arising from faith, is also directed to hiin 
which, nevertheless, peculiarly belongs, if any thing peculiarly 
belongs, to the Divine majesty. For a prophet says, ‘‘ Who- 
soever shall call on the name of the Lord (Jehovah) shall be 
delivered.” (2) And Solomon, ‘‘ The name of the Lord is a 
strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.” (k) 
But the name of Christ is invoked for salvation: it follows, 
therefore, that he is Jehovah. Moreover, we have an example 
of such invocation in Stephen, when he says, ‘‘ Lord Jesus, 
receive my spirit.”’ (2). And afterwards in the whole Church, 
as Ananias testifies in the same book: ‘ Lord, I have heard 
by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy 
saints — that call on thy name.” (m) And to make it more 
clearly understood, that ‘all the fulness of the Godhead 
dwelleth bodily in Christ,” the Apostle confesses that he had 
introduced among the Corinthians no other doctrine than the 
knowledge of him, and that this had been the only subject of 
his preaching.(z) What aremarkable and important consid- 
eration is it, that the name of the Son only is preached to us, 
whereas God commands us to glory in the knowledge of him- 
self alone! (0) Who can dare to assert that he is a mere 
creature, the knowledge of whom is our only glory? It must 
also be remarked, that the salutations prefixed to the epistles 
of Paul implore the same blessings from the Son as from the 
Father ; whence we learn, not only that those: things, which 
our heavenly Father bestows, are obtained for us by his in- 
tercession, but that the Son, by a communion of power, is 
himself the author of them. This practical knowledge is 
unquestionably more certain and solid than any idle specula- 
tion. For then the pious mind has the nearest view of the 
Divine presence, and almost touches it, when it experiences 
itself to be quickened, illuminated, saved, justified, and sanc- 
tified. 

XIV. Wherefore the proof of the Deity of the Spirit must be 
derived principally from the same sources. ‘There is no ob- 
scurity in the testimony of Moses, in the history of the crea- 
tion, that the Spirit of God was expanded on the abyss or 
chaos ;(p) for it signifies, not only that the beautiful state of 
the world which we now behold owes its preservation to the 
power of the Spirit, but that, previously to its being thus 
adorned, the Spirit was engaged in brooding over the confused 
mass. The declaration of Isaiah bids defiance to all cavils: 
‘And now the Lord God, and his Spirit, hath sent me.” (q) 
For the Holy Spirit is united in the exercise of supreme 


(t) Joel ii. 32. (m) Acts ix. 13, 14. (p) Gen. i. 2. 
(k) Prov. xviii. 10. (n) 1 Cor. ii. 2. (q) Isaiah xlviii. 16. 
(1) Acts vii. 59. (0) Jer. ix. 24. 


CHAP. XIII. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 13] 


power in the mission of Prophets, which is a proof of his 
Divine majesty. But the best confirmation, as I have re- 
marked, we shall derive from familiar experience. For what 
the Scriptures ascribe to him, and what we ourselves learn by 
ihe certain experience of piety, is not at all applicable to any 
creature. For it is he who, being universally diffused, sus- 
tains and animates all things in heaven and in earth. And 
this very thing excludes him from the number of creatures, 
that he is circumscribed by no limits, but transfuses through 
all his own vigorous influence, to inspire them with being, 
life, and motion: this is clearly a work of Deity. Again, if 
regeneration to an incorruptible life be more important and 
excellent than any present life, what must we think of him 
from whose power it proceeds? But the Scripture teaches, in 
various places, that he is the author of regeneration by a 
power not derived, but properly his own; and not of regen- 
eration only, but likewise of the future immortality. Finally, 
to him, as well as to the Son, are applied all those offices 
which are peculiar to Deity. For he “searcheth even the 
deep things of God,” (7) who admits no creature to a share 
in his councils. He bestows wisdom and the faculty of 
speech ;(s) whereas the Lord declares to Moses, that this can 
only be done by himself.(¢) So through him we attain toa 
participation of God, to feel his vivifying energy upon us. 
Our justification is his work. From him proceed power, 
sanctification, truth, grace, and every other blessing we can 
conceive ; since there is but one Spirit, from whom every 
kind of gifts descends. For this passage of Paul is worthy of 
particular attention: ‘‘ There are diversities of gifts, and there 
are differences of administrations, but the same Spirit ;’' (2) 
because it represents him, not-only as the principle and source 
of them, but also as the author; which is yet more clearly 
expressed a little after in these words: “ All these worketh 
that only and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man 
severally as he will.” For if he were not a subsistence in the 
Deity, judgment and voluntary determination would never be 
ascribed to him. Paul, therefore, very clearly attributes to the 
Spirit Divine power, and thereby demonstrates him to be an 
hypostasis or subsistence in God. 

XV. Nor does the Scripture, when it speaks of him, refrain 
from giving him the appellation of God. For Paul concludes 
that we are the temple of God, because his Spirit dwelleth in 
us. (v) This must not be passed over without particular notice ; 
for the frequent promises of God, that he will choose us fora 
temple for himself, receive no other accomplishment, than by 


(r) 1 Cor ii. 10, 16. (s) 1 Cor. xii. 8. (t) Exod. iv. 11. 
(u) 1 Cor. xu 4, &e. (cv) 1 Cor. iii. 16; vi. 19. 2 Cor. vi. 16. 


132 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book + 


the inhabitation of his Spirit in us. Certainly, as Augustine ex- 
cellently observes, “ If we were commanded to erect to the Spirit 
a temple of wood and stone, forasmuch as God is the sole ob- 
ject of worship, it would be a clear proof of his Divinity ; how 
much clearer, then, is the proof, now that we are commanded, 
not to erect one, but to be ourselves his temples!” And the 
Apostle calls us sometimes the temple of God, and sometimes 
the temple of the Holy Spirit, both m the same signification. 
Peter, reprehending Ananias for having “lied to the Holy 
Ghost,” told him that he had “not hed unto men, but unto 
God.” (w) And where Isaiah (x) introduces the Lord of hosts as 
the speaker, Paul (y) informs us that it is the Holy Spirit who 
speaks. Indeed, while the Prophets invariably declare, that the 
words which they utter are those of the Lord of hosts, Christ 
and the Apostles refer them to the Holy Spirit; whence it 
follows, that he is the true Jehovah, who is the primary author 
of the prophecies. Again, God complains that his anger was 
provoked by the perverseness of the people; Isaiah, in refer- 
ence to the same conduct, says, that ‘‘they vexed his Holy 
Spirit.””(z) Lastly, if blasphemy against the Spirit be not for- 
given, either in this world or in that which is to come, (a) 
whilst a man may obtain pardon who has been guilty of blas- 
phemy against the Son, this is an open declaration of his Divine 
majesty, to defame or degrade which is an inexpiable crime. 1 
intentionally pass over many testimonies which were used by 
the fathers. 'To them there appeared much plausibility in 
citing this passage from David, “By the word of the Lord 
were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath 
of his mouth ;’’ (6) to prove that the creation of the world was 
the work of the Holy Spirit, as well as of the Son. But since 
a repetition of the same thing twice is common in the Psalms, 
and in Isaiah “ the spirit of his mouth” means the same as “ his 
word,” this is but a weak argument. Therefore I have deter- 
mined to confine myself to a sober statement of those evidences 
on which pious minds may satisfactorily rest. 

XVI. As God afforded a clearer manifestation of himself at 
the advent of Christ, the three Persons also then became bet- 
ter known. Among many testimonies, let us be satisfied with 
this one: Paul connects together these three, Lord, Faith, and 
Baptism, (c) in such a manner as to reason from one to another. 
Since there is but one faith, hence he proves that there is but 
one Lord; since there is but one baptism, he shows that there 
1s also but one faith. Therefore, if we are initiated by baptism in- 
to the faith and religion of one God, we must necessarily suppose 


(w) Acts v. 3, 4. (x) Isaiah vi. 9. (y) Acts xxviii. 25. 
(z) Isaiah Ixiii. 10. (a) Matt. xii. 31. Mark ii. 29. Luke xu. 10. 
(6) Psalm xxxili. 6. (c) Ephes. iv. 5. 


a 


CHAP. xIII.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 133 


him to be the true God into whose name we are baptized. Nor 
can it be doubted but that in this solemn commission, ‘‘ Baptize 
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost,” Christ intended to testify, that the perfect light 
of faith was now exhibited. For this is equivalent to being 
baptized into the name of the one God, who hath clearly man- 
ifested himself in the Father, Son, and Spirit; whence it evi- 
dently appears, that in the Divine Essence there exist three 

Persons, in whom is known the one God, And truly, since 
faith ought not to be looking about hither and thither, or to be 
wandering through the varieties of inconstancy, but to direct 
its views towards the one God, to be fixed on him, and to adhere 
to him, —it may easily be proved from these premises, that, if 

there be various kinds of faith, there must also be a plurality of 

gods. Baptism, being a sacrament of faith, confirms to us the 

unity of God, because it is but one. Hence, also, we conclude, 

that it is not lawful to be baptized, except into the name of the 
one God; because we embrace the faith of him, into whose 
name we are baptized. What, then, was intended "by Christ, 

when he commanded baptism to. be administered in the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, but that 
one faith ought to be exercised in the Father, Son, and Spirit? 
and what is that but a clear testimony, that the Father, the 
Son, and the Holy Spirit, are the one God? Therefore, since it 
is an undeniable truth, that there is one God, and only one, we 
conclude the Word and Spirit to be no other than the very Es- 
sence of the Deity. The greatest degree of folly was betrayed 
by the Arians, who confessed the Divinity of the Son, but de- 
nied him to possess the substance of God. Nor were the Mace- 
donians free from a similar delusion, who would explain the 
term “Spirit”? to mean only the gifts of grace conferred upon 
man. For as wisdom, understanding, prudence, fortitude, and 

the fear of the Lord, proceed from him, so he alone is the Spirit: 
of wisdom, prudence, fortitude, and piety. Nor is he himself di- 
vided according to the distribution of his graces; but, as the 
Apostle declares, how variously soever they are divided, he ai- 
ways remains one and the same. (d) 

XVII. On the other hand, also, we find in the Scriptures a 
distinction between the Father and the Word, between the 
Word and the Spirit; in the discussion of which the magni- 
tude of the mystery reminds us that we ought to proceed with 
the utmost reverence and sobriety. I am exceedingly pleased 
with this observation of Gregory Nazianzen: “I cannot think 
of the one, but I am immediately surrounded with the splen- 
dour of the three; nor can I clearly discover the three, but I 


(d) 1 Cor. xii. 11. 


134 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 1. 


am suddenly carried back to the one.” Wherefore let us not 
imagine such a trinity of Persons, as includes an idea of separa- 
tion, or does not immediately recall us to the unity. The 
names of Father, Son, and Spirit, certainly imply a real dis- 
tinction ; let no one suppose them to be mere epithets, by 
which God is variously designated from his works; but it is 


a distinction, not a division. The passages already cited 


show, that the Son has a property, by which he is distin- 
guished from the Father; because the Word had not been 
with God, or had his glory with the Father, unless he had been 
distinct from him. He likewise distinguishes the Father from 
himself, when he says, “‘that there is another that beareth 
witness of him.’’(e) And to the same effect is what is de- 
clared in another place, that the Father created all things by 


the Word; which he could not have done, unless he had been 


in some sense distinct from him. Besides, the Father de- 
scended not to the earth, but he who came forth from the 
Father. “The Father neither died nor rose again, but he who 
was sent by the Father. Nor did this distinction commence 
at the incarnation, but it is evident, that, before that period, 
he was the only begotten in the bosom of the Father. (/f) 
For who can undertake to assert, that the Son first entered 
into the bosom of the Father, when he descended from heaven 
to assume a human nature? He, therefore, was in the bosom 
of the Father before, and possessed his glory with the Father. 
The distinction between the Holy Spirit and the Father is 
announced by Christ, when he says, that he ‘“ proceedeth from 
the Father.” (g) But how often does he represent him as 
another, distinct from himself! as when he promises that 
‘another Comforter’ (2) should be sent, and in many other 
places. 

XVIII. I doubt the propriety of borrowing similitudes from 
human things, to express the force of this distinction. The 
fathers sometimes practise this method; but they likewise 
confess the great disproportion of all the similitudes which they 
introduce. Wherefore I greatly dread, in this instance, every 
degree of presumption ; lest the introduction of any thing un- 
seasonable should afford an occasion of calumny to the ma- 
licious, or of error to the ignorant. Yet it is not right to be 
silent on the distinction which we find expressed in the Scrip- 
tures; which is this—that to the Father is attributed the 
principle of action, the fountain and source of all things; to 
the Son, wisdom, counsel, and the arrangement of all opera- 
tions; and the power and efficacy of the action is assigned to 
the Spirit. Moreover, though eternity belongs to the Father, 


(e) John v, 32; viii. 16, 18. (g) John xv. 26. 
(f) John i. 18. (h) John xiv. 16. 


ete ee 


CHAP. xu11.| CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 135 


and to the Son and Spirit also, since God can never have been 
_ destitute of his wisdom or his power, and in eternity we must 
not inquire after any thing prior or posterior, — yet the observa- 
tion of order is not vain or superfluous, while the Father is 
mentioned as first ; in the next place the Son, as from him; 
and then the Spirit, as from both. For the mind of every 
man naturally inclines to the consideration, first, of God ; sec- 
ondly, of the wisdom emanating from him; and lastly, of the 
power by which he executes the decrees of his wisdom. For 
this reason the Son is said to be from the Father, and the 
Spirit from both the Father and the Son; and that in various 
places, but nowhere more clearly than in the eighth chapter of 
the Epistle to the Romans, where the same Spirit is indif- 
ferently denominated “the Spirit of Christ,” and “the Spirit 
of him that raised up Christ from the dead,” and that without 
any impropriety. For Peter also testifies that it was the Spirit 
of Christ by whom the prophets prophesied ; (7) whereas the 
Scripture so frequently declares that it was the Spirit of Goa 
the Father. 

XIX. This distinction is so far from opposing the most ab- 
solute simplicity and unity of the Divine Being, that it affords 
a proof that the Son is one God with the Father, because he 
has the same Spirit with him; and that the Spirit is not a 
different substance from the Father and the Son, because he 
is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son. For the whole 
nature is in each hypostasis, and each has something peculiar 
to himself. ‘The Father is entirely in the Son, and the Son 
entirely in the Father, according to his own declaration, ‘I 
am in the Father, and the Father in me;’’(é) nor do eccle- 
siastical writers allow that one is divided from the other by 
any difference of essence. ‘‘ These distinctive appellations,” 
says Augustine, “‘denote their reciprocal relations to each 
other, and_not the substance itself, which is but one.” This 
explanation may serve to reconcile the opinions of the fathers, 
which would otherwise appear totally repugnant to each other. 
For sometimes they state that the Son originates from the 
Father, and at other times assert that he has essential Divinity 
from himself, and so is, together with.the Father, the one 
first cause of all. Augustine, in another place, admirably and 
perspicuously explains the cause of this diversity, in the fol- 
lowing manner: ‘ Christ, considered in himself, is called,God ; 
but with relation to the Father, he is called the Son.” And 
again, ‘‘ The Father, considered in himself, is called God; but 
with relation to the Son, he is called the Father. He who 
with relation to the Son, is called the Father, is not the Son; 


(i) 1 Pet. i. 11, (k) John xiv. 10, 11. 


136 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1 


he who, with relation to the Father, is called the Son, 1s not 
the Father; they who are severally called the Father and the 
Son, are the same God.” Therefore, when we speak simply 
of the Son, without reference to the Father, we truly and 


properly assert him to be self-existent, and therefore call him _ 


the sole first cause ; but, when we distinctly treat of the rela- 
tion between him and the Father, we justly represent him as 
originating from the Father. The first book of Augustine on 
the Trinity is entirely occupied with the explication of this 
subject ; and it is far more safe to rest satisfied with that re- 
lation which he states, than by curiously penetrating into the 
sublime mystery, to wander through a multitude of vain spec- 
ulations. 

XX. Therefore, let such as love sobriety, and will be con- 
tented with the measure of faith, briefly attend to what is use- 
ful to be known ; which is, that, when we profess to believe in 
one God, the word God denotes a single and simple essence, 
in which we comprehend three . Persons, or hypostases; and 
that, therefore, whenever the word Ged is used indefinitely, 
the Son and Spirit are intended as much as the Father; but 
when the Son is associated with the Father, that introduces 
the reciprocal relation of one to the other; and thus we dis- 
tinguish between the Persons. But, since the peculiar proper- 
ties of the Persons produce a certain order, so that the originak 
cause is in the Father, whenever the Father and the Son or 
Spirit are mentioned together, the name of God is peculiarly 
ascribed to the Father: by this method the unity of the es- 
sence is preserved, and the order is retained ; which, however, 
derogates nothing from the Deity of the Son and Spirit. And 
indeed, as we have already seen that the Apostles assert him 
to be the Son of God, whom Moses and the Prophets have 
represented as Jehovah, it is always necessary to recur to the 
unity of the essence. Wherefore it would be a detestable 
sacrilege for us to call the Son another God different from the 
Father ; because the simple name of God admits of no rela- 
tion; nor can God, with respect to himself, be denominated 
either the one or the other. Now, that the name “ Jehovah,” 
in an indefinite sense, is applicable to Christ, appears even from 
the words of Paul: “for this thing I besought the Lord 
thrice ;” (7) because, after relating the answer of Christ, 
“My. grace is sufficient for thee,” he immediately subjoins, 
‘That the power of Christ may rest upon me.”’ For it is cer- 
tain that the word “ Lord ’’ is there used for ‘ Jehovah ; ” 
and to restrict it to the person of the Mediator, would be friv- 
olous and puerile, since it is an absolute declaration, containing 


‘l) 2 Cor. xii. 8, 9. 


CHAP.. XIII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. ! 137 


no comparison between the Son and the Father. And we 
know that the Apostles, following the custom of the Greek 
translators, invariably use the word Kuews, (Lord,) instead of 
Jehovah. And, not to seek far for an example of this, Paul 
_prayed to the Lord in no other sense than is intended in a 
passage of Joel, cited by Peter: ‘‘ Whosoever shall call on the 
name of the Lord shall be saved.” (m) But for the peculiar 
ascription of this name to the Son, another reason will be given 
in its proper place; suffice it at present to observe that, when 
Paul had prayed to God absolutely, he immediately subjoins 
the name of Christ. Thus also the.whole Deity is by Christ 
himself denominated “a Spirit.” For nothing opposes the 
spirituality of the whole Divine essence, in which are compre- 
hended the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; which is plain 
from the Scripture. For as we there find God denominated 
a Spirit, so we find also the Holy Spirit, forasmuch as he is 
an hypostasis of the whole essence, represented both as the 
Spirit of God, and as proceeding from God. 

XXI. But since Satan, in order to subvert the very foun- 
dations of our faith, has always been exciting great conten- 
tions concerning the Divine essence of the Son and Spirit, 
and the distinction of the Persons; and in almost all ages has 
instigated impious spirits to vex the orthodox teachers on this 
account ; and is also endeavouring, in the present day, with 
the old embers, to kindle a new flame; it becomes necessary 
here to refute the perverse and fanciful notions which some 
persons have imbibed. Hitherto it has been our principal de- 
sign to instruct the docile, and not to combat the obstinate 
and contentious ; but now, having calmly explained and proved 
the truth, we must vindicate it from all the cavils of the wick- 
ed; although I shall make it my principal study, that those 
who readily and implicitly attend to the Divine word, may 
have stable ground on which they may confidently rest. On 
this, indeed, if on any of the secret mysteries of the Scripture, 
we ought to philosophize with great sobriety and moderation ; 
and also with extreme caution, lest either our ideas or our lan- 
guage should proceed beyond the limits of the Divine word. 
For how can the infinite essence of God be defined by the 
narrow capacity of the human mind, which could never yet 
certainly determine the nature of the body of the sun, though 
the object of our daily contemplation? How can the human 
mind, by its own efforts, penetrate into att examination of the 
essence of God, when it is totally ignorant of its own? Where- 
fore let us freely leave to God the knowledge of himself. For 
“he alone,” as Hilary says, ‘is a competent witness for him- 


(m) Joel ii. 28—32. Acts ii. 16—21. 
VOL. I. 8 


138 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 1. 


self, being only known by himself.”” And we shall certainly 
leave it to him, if our conceptions of him correspond to the 
manifestations which he has given us of himself, and our in- 
quiries concerning him are confined to his word. ‘There are 
extant on this argument five homilies of Chrysostom against 
the Anomei; which, however, were not sufficient to restrain 
the presumptuous garrulity of those sophists. For they dis- 
covered no greater modesty in this instance than in every 
other. The very unhappy consequences of this temerity 
should warn us to study this question with more docility than 
subtlety, and not allow ourselves to investigate God any where 
but in his sacred word, or to form any ideas of him but such 
as are agreeable to his word, or to speak any thing concerning 
him but what is derived from the same word. But if the dis- 
tinction of Father, Son, and Spirit, in the one Deity, as it is 
not easy to be comprehended, occasions some understandings 
more labour and trouble than is desirable, let them remember 
that the mind of man, when it indulges its curiosity, enters 
into a labyrinth; and let them submit to be guided by the 
heavenly oracles, however they tap not comprehend the 
height of this mystery. 

XXII. To compose a catalogue of the errors, by which the 
purity of the faith has been attacked on this point of doctrine, 
would be too prolix and tedious, without being profitable; and 
most of the heretics so strenuously exerted themselves to effect 
the total extinction of the Divine glory by their gross reveries, 
that they thought it sufficient to unsettle and disturb the inexpe- 
rienced. From a few men there soon arose numerous sects, of 
whom some would divide the Divine essence, and others would 
confound the distinction which subsists between the Persons. 
But if we maintain, what has already been sufficiently demon- 
strated from the Scripture, that the essence of the one God, 
which pertains to the Father, to the Son, and to the Spirit, is 
simple and undivided, and, on the other hand, that the Father 
is, by some property, distinguished from the Son, and hkewise 
the Son from the Spirit, the gate will be shut, not only against 
Arius and Sabellius, but also against all the other ancient he- 
resiarchs. But since our own times have witnessed some mad- 
men, as Servetus and his followers, who have involved every 
thing in new subtleties, a brief exposure of their fallacies will 
not be unuseful. The word Trinity was so odious and even 
‘detestable to Servetus, that he asserted all Trinitarians, as he 
called them, to be Atheists. I omit his impertinent and scurri- 
lous language, but this was the substance of his speculations : 
That it is representing God as consisting of three parts, when 
three Persons are said to subsist in his essence, and that this 
triad is merely imaginary, being repugnant to the Divine unity. 


enaP. -xi11.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 139 


At the same time, he maintained the Persons to be certain ex- 
ternal ideas, which have no real subsistence in the Divine es- 
sence, but give us a figurative representation of God, under this 
or the other form; and that in the beginning there was no dis- 
tinction in God, because the Word was once the same as the 
Spirit ; but that, after Christ appeared God of God, there em- 
anated from him another God, even the Spirit. Though he 
sometimes glosses over his impertinencies with allegories, as 
when he says, that the eternal Word of God was the Spirit of 
Christ with God, and the reflection of his image, and that the 
Spirit was a shadow of the Deity, yet he afterwards destroys 
the: Deity of both, asserting that, according to the mode of dis- 
pensation, there is a part of God in both the Son and the Spirit ; 
just as the same Spirit, substantially diffused in us, and even in 
wood and stones, is a portion of the Deity. What he broached 
concerning the Person of the Mediator, we shall examine in the 
proper place. But this monstrous fiction, that a Divine Person 
is nothing but a visible appearance of the glory of God, will 
not need «a prolix refutation. For when John pronounces that 
the Word (Acyos) was God before the creation of the world, he 
sufficiently discriminates him from an ideal form. But if then 
also, and from the remotest eternity, that Word (Aoyos) who was 
God, was with the Father, and possessed his own glory with the 
Father, he certainly could not be an external or figurative splen- 
dour; but it necessarily follows, that he was a real hypostasis, 
subsisting in God himself. But although no mention is made of 
the Spirit, but in the history of the creation of the world, yet he 
is there introduced, not as a shadow, but as the essential power of 
God, since Moses relates that the chaotic mass was supported by 
him. (7) It then appeared, therefore, that the eternal Spirit had 
always existed in the Deity, since he cherished and sustained the 
confused matter of the heaven and earth, till it attained a state 
of beauty and order. He certainly could not then be an image 
or representation of God, according to the dreams of Servetus. 
But in other places he is constrained to make a fuller disclosure 
of his impiety, saying that God, in his eternal reason, decreeing 
for himself a visible Son, has visibly exhibited himself in this 
manner; for if this be true, there is no other Divinity left to 
Christ, than as he has been appointed a Son by an eternai de- 
cree of God. Besides, he so transforms those phantasms, which 
he substitutes instead of the hypostases, that he hesitates not to 
imagine new accidents or properties in God. But the most ex- 
ecrable blasphemy of all is, his promiscuous confusion of the Son 
of God and the Spirit with all the creatures. For he asserts that 
in the Divine essence there are parts and divisions, every por- 


(n) Gen. i. 2. 


140 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK I. 


tion of which is God; and especially that the souls of the 
faithful are coéternal and consubstantial with God; though in 
another place he assigns substantial Deity, not only to the hu- 
man soul, but to all created things. 

XXIII. From the same corrupt source has proceeded an- 
other heresy, equally monstrous. For some worthless men, 
to escape the odium and disgrace which attended the impious 
tenets of Servetus, have confessed, indeed, that there are three 
Persons, but with this explanation, that the Father, who alone 
is truly and properly God, hath created the Son and Spirit, 
and transfused his Deity into them. Nor do they refrain from 
this dreadful manner of expressing themselves, that the Father 
is distinguished from the Son and Spirit, as being the sole pos- 
sessor of the Divine essence. ‘Their first plea in support of 
this notion is, that Christ is commonly called the Son of God ; 
whence they conclude that no other is properly God but the 
Father. But they observe not, that although the name of 
God is common also to the Son, yet that it is sometimes as- 
cribed to the Father (xasr’ éoxnv) by way of eminence, because 
he is the fountain and original of the Deity ; and this in order 
to denote the simple unity of the essence. They object, that 
if he is truly the Son of God, it is absurd to account him the 
Son of a Person. JI reply, that both are true; that he is the 
Son of God, because he is the Word begotten of the Father 
before time began, for we are not yet speaking of the Person 
of the Mediator ; and to be explicit, we must notice the Per- 
son, that the name of God may not be understood absolutely, 
but for the Father; for if we acknowledge no other to be God 
than the Father, it will be a manifest degradation of the dig- 
nity of the Son. Whenever mention: is made of the Deity, 
therefore, there must no opposition be admitted between the 
Father and the Son, as though the name of the true God be- 
longed exclusively to the Father. For surely the God who 
appeared to Isaiah, was the only true God;(o) whom, never- 
theless, John affirms to have been Christ.(p) He likewise, 
who by the mouth of Isaiah declared that he was to be a rock 
of offence to the Jews, was the only true God;(q) whom 
Paul pronounces to have been Christ. (7) He who proclaims 
by Isaiah, ‘“ As I live, every knee shall bow to me,” (s) is the 
only true God; but Paul applies the same to Christ. (¢) To 
the same purpose are the testimonies recited by the Apostle — 
“Thou, Lord, hast laid the foundation of the earth and the 
heavens ;” and “ Let all the angels of God worship him.” (v) 
These ascriptions belong only to the one true God; whereas 


(0) Isaiah vi. 1. (q) Isaiah viii. 14. (s) Isaiah xlv. 23. 
(p) John xii. 41. _ (7) Rom. ix. 33. (t) Rom. xiv. 11. 
(v) Heb. i.6,10. Psalm cii. 25° xevii. 7. 


CHAP. ‘XIII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 141 


he contends that they are properly applied to Christ. Nor is 
there any force in that cavil, that what is proper to God is 
transferred to Christ, because he is the brightness of his glory. 
For, since the name Jehovah is used in each of these passages, 
it follows that in respect of his Deity he is self-existent. For, 
if he is Jehovah, he cannot be denied to be the same God, who 
in another place proclaims by Isaiah, ‘I am the first and I 
am the last; and beside me there is no God.” (w) That pas- 
sage in Jeremiah also deserves our attention — ‘‘ The gods that 
have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall 
perish from the earth, and from under these heavens; ” (2) 
whilst, on the contrary, it must be acknowledged, that the 
Deity of the Son of God is frequently proved by Isaiah from 
the creation of the world. But how shall the Creator, who 
gives existence to all, not be self-existent, but derive his es- 
sence from another? For whoever asserts that the Son owes 
his essence to the Father, denies him to be self-existent. But 
this is contradicted by the Holy Spirit, who gives him the 
name of Jehovah. Now, if we admit the whole essence to be 
solely in the Father, either it will be divisible, or it will be 
taken away from the Son; and so, being despoiled of his es- 
sence, he will be only a titular god. ‘The Divine essence, 
according to these triflers, belongs solely to the Father, inas- 
much as he alone possesses it, and is the author of the essence 
of the Son. Thus the Divinity of the Son will be a kind of 
emanation from the essence of God, or a derivation of a part 
from the whole. Now, they must of necessity concede, from 
their own premises, that the Spirit is the Spirit of the Father 
only ; because if he be a derivation from the original essence, 
which belongs exclusively to the Father, he cannot be ac- 
counted the Spirit of the Son; which is refuted by the tes- 
timony of Paul, where he makes him common to Christ and 
the Father. Besides, if the Person of the Father be expunged 
from the Trinity, wherein will he differ from the Son and 
Spirit, but in being himself the sole Deity? They. confess 
that Christ is God, and yet differs from the Father. Some 
distinctive character is necessary, also, to discriminate the 
Father from the Son. They who place this in the essence, 
manifestly destroy the true Deity of Christ, which cannot exist 
independently of the essence, that is, of the entire essence. 
The Father certainly cannot differ from the Son, unless he 
have something peculiar to himself, which is not common to 
the Son. What will they find, by which to distinguish him ? 
If the difference be in the essence, let them tell us whether he 
has communicated the same to the Son. But this could. not 


(w) Isaiah xliv.\6. (x) Jer. x. 11. 


142, INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK I. 


be done partially ; for it would be an abomination to fabricate 
a demigod. Besides, this would miserably dismember the 
Divine essence. ‘The necessary conclusion then is, that it is 
entirely and perfectly common to the Father and the Son. 
And if this be true, there cannot, in respect of the essence, be 
any difference between them. If it be objected that the Fa- 
ther, notwithstanding this communication of his essence, re- 
mains the only God with whom the essence continues, then 
Christ must be a figurative god, a god in appearance and name 
only, not in reality; because nothing is more proper to God 
than To BE, according to that declaration, “ I AM hath sent me 
unto you.” ( 

XXIV. We might readily prove from many passages the 
falsehood of their assumption, that, whenever the name of God 
is mentioned absolutely in the Scripture, it means only the 
Father. And in those places which they cite in their own 
defence, they shamefully betray their ignorance, since the Son 
is there added ; from which it appears, that the name of God 
is used in a relative sense, and therefore is particularly re- 
stricted to the Person of the Father. Their objection, that, 
unless the Father alone were the true God, he would himself 
be his own Father, is answered ina word. For there is no 
absurdity in the name of God, for the sake of dignity and 
order, being peculiarly given to him, who not only hath be- 
gotten of himself his own wisdom, but is also the God of the 
Mediator, of which I shall treat more at large in its proper 
place. For since Christ was manifested in the flesh, he 
is called the Son of God, not only as he was the eternal 
Word begotten of the Father before time began, but because 
he assumed the person and office of a Mediator, to unite us to 
God. And since’ they so presumptuously exclude the Son 
from Divine honours, I would wish to be informed, when he 
declares that there is none good but the one God, (z) whether 
he deprives himself of all goodness. I speak not of his hu- 
man nature, lest they should object, that, whatever goodness 
it had, it was gratuitously conferred on it. I demand whether 
the eternal Word of God be good or not. If they answer in 
the negative, they are sufficiently convicted of impiety ; and 
if in the affirmative, they cut the throat of their own system. 
But though, at the first glance, Christ seems to deny himself 
the appellation of good, he furnishes, notwithstanding, a fur- 
ther confirmation of our opinion. For, as that is a title which 
peculiarly belongs to the one God, forasmuch as he had been 
saluted as good, merely according to a common custom, by his 
rejection of false honour, he suggested that the goodness 


(y) Exod. ii. 14. ° (z) Matt. xix. 17. 


-HAP. XIII. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 143 


which he possessed was Divine. J demand, also, when Paul 
affirms that God alone is immortal, wise, and true, (a) whether 
he thereby degrades Christ to the rank of those who are mor- 
tal, unwise, and false. Shall not he then be immortal who 
from the beginning was life itself, and the giver of immortal- 
ity to angels? Shall not he be wise who is the eternal Wis- 
dom of God? Shall not he be true who is truth itself? I 
demand further, whether they think that Christ ought to be 
worshipped. For, if he justly claims this as his right, that 
every knee should bow before him, (0) it follows that he is 
that God, who, in the law, prohibited the worship of any one 
but himself. If they will have this passage in Isaiah, “TI 
am, and there is no God besides me,’ to be understood solely 
of the Father, I retort this testimony on themselves; since 
we see that whatever belongs to God is attributed to Christ. 
Nor is there any room for their cavil, that Christ was exalted 
in the humanity in which he had been abased ; and that, with 
regard to his humanity, all power was given to him in heaven 
and in earth ; because, although the regal and judicial majesty 
extends to the whole Person of the Mediator, yet, had he not 
been God manifested in the flesh, he could not have been 
exalted to such an eminence, without God being in opposition 
to himself. And Paul excellently determines this controversy, 
by informing us that he was equal with God, before he abased 
himself under the form of a servant. (c) Now, how could this 
equality subsist, unless he had been that God whose name is 
Jan and Jenovan, who rides on the cherubim, whose. kingdom 
is universal and everlasting? No clamour of theirs can de- 
prive Christ of another declaration of Isaiah: ‘ Lo, this is our 
God, we have waited for him ;” (d) since in these words he 
describes the advent of God the Redeemer, not only for the 
deliverance of the people from exile in Babylon, but also for 
the complete restoration of the church. Nor do they gain any 
thing by another cavil, that Christ was God in his Father. 
For although we confess, in point of order and degree, that the 
Father is the fountain of the Deity, yet we pronounce it a 
detestable figment, that the essence belongs exclusively to the 
Father, as though he were the author of the Deity of the Son; 
because, on this supposition, either the essence would be divi- 
ded, or Christ would be only a titular and imaginary god. If 
they admit that the Son is God, but inferior to the Father, 
then in him the essence must be begotten and created, which 
in the Father is unbegotten and uncreated. I know that 
some scorners ridicule our concluding a distinction of Persons 
from the words of Moses, where he introduces God thus speak- 


(a) 1 Tim. 1.17. (6) Phil. ii. 10. (c) Phil. ii. 6, 7. (d) Isaiah xxv. 9 


144 , INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK 1. 


ing: ‘Let us make man in our image.’”’(e) Yet pious readers 
perceive how frigidly and foolishly Moses would have intro- 
duced this conference, if in one God there had not subsisted a 


plurality of Persons. Now, it is certain that they whom the 


Father addressed, were uncreated; but there is nothing un- 
created, except the one God himself. Now, therefore, unless 
they grant that the power to create, and the authority to com- 
mand, were common to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, 
it will follow, that God did not speak thus within himself, but 
directed his conversation to some exterior agents. Lastly, 
one place will easily remove their two objections at once. 
For when Christ himself declares, that God is a Spirit, it 


would be unreasonable to restrict this solely to the Father, 


as though the Word were not also of a spiritual nature.’ But 
if the name of Spirit is equally as applicable to the Son as to 
the Father, I conclude that the Son is comprehended under 
the indefinite name of God. Yet he immediately subjoins, 
that none are approved worshippers of the Father, but those 
who worship him in spirit and in truth.(f) Whence follows 
another consequence, that, because Christ performs the office 
of a Teacher, in a station of inferiority, he ascribes the name 
of God to the Father, not to destroy his own Deity, but by de- 
grees to raise us to the knowledge of it. 

XXV. But they deceive themselves in dreaming of three 
separate individuals, each of them possessing a part of the Divine 
essence. We teach, according to the Scriptures, that there is 


essentially but one God; and, therefore, that the essence of both 


the Son and the Spirit is unbegotten. But since the Father is 
first in order, and hath of himself begotten his wisdom, there- 
fore, as has before been observed, he is justly esteemed the 
original and fountain of the whole Divinity. Thus God, indef- 
initely, is unbegotten ; and the Father also is unbegotten with 
regard to his Person. They even foolishly suppose, that our 
opinion implies a quaternity ; whereas they are guilty of false- 
hood and calumny, in ascribing to us a figment of their own; 
as though we pretended that the three Persons are as so many 
streams proceeding from one essence, when it is evident, from 
our writings, that we separate not the Persons from the essence, 
but, though they subsist in it, make a distinction between 
them. If the persons were separated from the essence, there 
would perhaps be some probability in their argument ; but then 
there would be a trinity of Gods, not a trinity of persons con- 
tained in one God. This solves their frivolous question, whether 
the essence concurs to the formation of the Trinity ; as though 
we imagined three Gods to descend from it. Their objection, 


(e) Gen. i. 26. (f) John iy. 24. 


— 


CHAP. XIII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 145 


that then the Trinity would be without God, is equally im- 
pertinent. Because, though it concurs not to the distinction 
as a part or member, yet the Persons are not independent of it, 
nor separate from it; for the Father, unless he were God, could 
not be the Father ; and the Son is the Son only as he is God. 
Therefore we say, that the Deity is absolutely self-existent ; 
whence we confess, also, that the Son, as God, independently 
of the consideration of Person, is self-existent ; but as the Son, 
we say, that he is of the Father. Thus his essence is unori- 
ginated ; but the origin of his Person is God himself. And, in- 
deed, the orthodox writers, who have written on the Trinity, 
have referred this name only to the Persons; since to compre- 
hend the essence in that distinction, were not only an absurd 
error, but a most gross impiety. For it is evident that those 
who maintain that the Trinity consists in a union of the Es- 
sence, the Son, and the Spirit, annihilate the essence of the 
Son and of the Spirit ; otherwise the parts would be destroyed 
by being confounded together; which is a fault in every dis- 
tinction. Finally, if the words Father and G‘od were synon- 
ymous —if the Father were the author of the Deity — nothing 
would be left in the Son but a mere shadow; nor would the 
Trinity be any other than a conjunction of the one God with 
two created things. 

XXVI. Their objection, that Christ, if he be properly God, 
is not rightly called the Son of God, has already been an- 
swered; for when a comparison is made between one Person 
and another, the word G‘od is not used indefinitely, but is re- 
stricted to the Father, as being the fountain of the Deity, not 
with regard to the essence, as fanatics falsely pretend, but in 
respect of order. ‘This is the sense in which we ought to un- 
derstand that declaration of Christ-to his Father: ‘This is life 
eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and 
Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (g) For, speaking in the 
capacity of Mediator, he holds an intermediate station between 
God and men; yet without any diminution of his majesty. 
For, although he abased himself, yet he lost not his glory with 
the Father, which was hidden from the world. Thus the 
Apostle to the Hebrews, (h) though he acknowledges that Christ 
was made for a short time inferior to the angels, yet, neverthe- 
less, hesitates not to assert, that he is the eternal God, who laid 
the fouhdhtioh of the Sart We must remember, tetctara! that 
whenever Christ, in the capacity of Mediator, addresses the 
Father, he comprehends, under the name of God, the Divimty 
which belongs also to himself. Thus, when he said to his 


(g) John xvii. 3. (h) Heb. i. 10; ii. 9. 
VOL. I. 19 


146 INSTITUTES OF THE ; [Book « 


Apostles, “‘I go unto the Father, for my Father is greater than 
I,’ (z) he attributes not to himself a secondary Divinity, as if 
he were inferior to the Father with respect to the eternal es- 
sence, but because, having obtained the glory of heaven, he 
gathers together the faithful to a participation of it with him; 
he represents the Father to be in astation superior to himself, just 
as the illustrious perfection of the splendour which appears in 
heaven excels that degree of glory which was visible in him 
during his incarnate state. For the same reason, Paul says, in 
another place, that. Christ ‘‘shall deliver up the kingdom to 
God, even the Father, that God may be all in all.” (4) Nothing 
would be more absurd than to deny perpetual duration to the 
Deity of Christ. Now, if he will never cease to be the Son of 
God, but will remain for ever the same as he has been from the 
beginning, it follows, that by the name Father is intended the 
one sole Divine essence, which is common to them both. And 
it is certain that Christ descended to us, in order that, exalting 
us to the Father, he might at the same time exalt us to him- 
self also,.as being one with the Father. It is therefore neither 
lawful nor right to restrict the name of God exclusively to the 
Father, and to deny it to the Son. For even on this very ae- 
count John asserts him to be the true God, (/) that no one 
might suppose, that he possessed only a secondary degree of 
Deity, inferior to the Father. And I wonder what can be the 
meaning of these fabricators of new gods, when, after confessing 
that Christ is the true God, they immediately exclude him from 
the Deity of the Father ; as though there could be any true God 
but one alone, or as though a transfused Divinity were any thing 
but a novel fiction. 

XXVIII. Their accumulation of numerous passages from Ire- 
neeus, where he asserts the Father of Christ to be the only and 
eternal God of Israel, is a proof either of shameful ignorance, or 
of consummate wickedness. For they ought to have consid- 
ered, that that holy man was then engaged in a controversy 
with some madmen, who denied that the Father of Christ was 
the same God that has spoken by Moses and the Prophets, but 
maintained that he was I know not what sort of phantasm, 
produced from the corruption, of the world. His only object, 
therefore, is to show that no other God is revealed in the Serip- 
ture than the F'ather of Christ, and that it is impious to imagine 
any other; and therefore we need not wonder at his frequently 
concluding, that there never was any other God of Israel than 
he who was preached by Christ and his Apostles. So, now, on 
the other hand, when a different error is to be opposed, we 


(¢) John xiv. 28. (k) 1 Cor. xv. 24. (2) 1 John v. 20. 


CHAP XIII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 147 


shall truly assert, that the God who appeared formerly to the 
patriarchs, was no other than Christ. If it be objected that it 
was the Father, we are prepared to reply, that, while we con- 
tend for the Divinity of the Son, we by no means reject that of 
the Father. If the reader attends to this design of Ireneus, all 
contention will cease. Moreover, the whole controversy is 
easily decided by the sixth chapter of the third book, where 
the good man insists on this one point: That he who is abso- 
lutely and indefinitely called God in the Scripture, is the only 
true God; but that the name of God is given absolutely to 
Christ. Let us remember that the point at issue, as appears 
from the whole treatise, and particularly from the forty-sixth 
chapter of the second book, was this: ‘That the appellation of 
Father is not given in an enigmatical and parabolical sense to 
one who is not truly God. Besides, in another place he con- 
tends, that the Son is called God, as well as the Father, by the 
Prophets and Apostles. He afterwards states how Christ, who 
is Lord, and King, and God, and Judge of all, received power 
from him who is God of all; and that is with relation to the 
subjection in which he was humbled even to the death of the 
cross. And a little after he affirms, that the Son is the Creator 
of heaven and earth, who gave the law by the hand of Moses, 
and appeared to the patriarchs. Now, if any one pretends that 
reneus acknowledges the Father alone as the God of Israel, I 
shall reply, as is clearly maintained by the same writer, that 
Christ is one and the same; as also he applies to him the 
prophecy of Habakkuk: “God shall come from the south.” 
To the same purpose is what we find in the ninth chapter of 
the fourth book : ‘‘ Therefore Christ himself is, with the Father, 
the God of the living.”” And in the twelfth chapter of the same 
book he states, that Abraham believed in God, inasmuch as 
Christ is the Creator of heaven and earth, and the only God. 
XXVIII. Their pretensions to the sanction of Tertullian 
are equally unfounded, for, notwithstanding the occasional 
harshness and obscurity of his mode of expression, yet he un- 
equivocally teaches the substance of the doctrine which we 
are defending ; that is, that whereas there is one God, yet by 
dispensation or economy there is his Word; that there is but 
one God in the unity of the substance, but that the unity, by 
a mysterious dispensation, is disposed into a trinity ; that there 
are three, not in condition, but in degree ; not in substance, 
but in form; not in power, but in order. He says, indeed, 
that he maintains the Son to be second to the Father; but he 
applies this only. to the distinction of the Persons. He says 
somewhere, that the Son is visible; but after having stated 
arguments on both sides, he concludes that, as the Werd, he is 


148 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1. 


invisible. Lastly, his assertion that the Father is designated 
by his Person, proves him to be at the greatest distance from 
the notion which we are refuting. And though he acknowl- 
edges no other God than the Father, yet the explanations 
which he gives in the immediate context show that he speaks 
not to the exclusion of the Son, when he denies the existence of 
any other God than the Father; and that therefore the unity 
of Divine government is not violated by the distinction of per- 
sons. And from the nature and design of his argument it is 
easy to gather the meaning of his words. For he contends, in 
opposition to Praxeas, that although God is distinguished into 
three Persons, yet neither is there a plurality of gods, nor is 
the unity divided. And because, according to the erroneous 
notion of Praxeas, Christ could not be God, without being -the 
Father, therefore Tertullian bestows so much labour upon the 
distinction. His calling the Word and Spirit a-portion of the 
whole, though a harsh expression, yet is excusable; since it 
has no reference to the substance, but only denotes the disposi- 
tion and economy, which belongs solely to the Persons, accord- 
ing to the testimony of Tertullian himself. Hence also that 
question, ‘‘How many Persons suppose you that there are, 
O most perverse Praxeas, but as many as there are names?” 
So, a little after, “‘that they may believe the Father and the 
Son, both in their names and Persons.” ‘These arguments, L 
conceive, vill suffice to refute the impudence of those who 
make use of the authority of Tertullian in order to deceive 
the minds of the simple. 

X XIX. And certainly, whoever will diligently compare the 
writings of the fathers, will find in Irenzus nothing differ- 
ent from what was advanced by others who succeeded him. 
Justin Martyr is one of the most ancient ; and he agrees with- 
us in every point. They may object that the Father of Christ 
is denorhinated the one God by him as well as by the rest. 
The same is asserted also by ‘Hilary, and even in harsher 
terms: he says, that eternity is in the Father; but does this 
imply a denial of the Divine essence to the Son? On the 
contrary, he had no other design than to maintain the same 
faith which we hold. Nevertheless, they are not ashamed to 
cull out mutilated passages, in order to induce a belief that he 
patronized their error. If they wish any authority to be at- 
tached to their quotation of Ignatius, let them prove that the 
Apostles delivered any law concerning Lent, and similar cor- 
ruptions; for nothing can be more absurd than the impertinen- 
cies which have been published under the name of Ignatius. 
Wherefore their impudence is more intolerable, who disguise 
themselves under such false colours for the purpose of decep- 


CHAP. XuIII.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 143 


tion. Moreover, the consent of antiquity manifestly appears 
from this circumstance, that in the Nicene Council, Arius never 
dared to defend himself by the authority of any approved wri 
ter; and not one of the Greek or Latin fathers, who were there 
united against him, excused himself as at all dissenting from 
his predecessors. With regard to Augustine, who experienced 
great hostility from these disturbers, his diligent examination 
of all the writings of the earlier fathers, and his respectful at- 
tention to them, need not be mentioned. If he differs from 
them in the smallest particulars, he assigns the reasons which 
oblige him to dissent from them. On this argument also, if he 
finds any thing ambiguous or obscure in others, he never con- 
ceals it. Yet he takes it for granted, that the doctrine which 
those men oppose has been received without controversy from 
the remotest antiquity ; and yet that he was not uninformed of 
what others had taught before him, appears even from one 
word in the first book of his Treatise on the Christian Doc- 
trine, where he says, that unity isin the Father. Will they pre- 
tend that he had then forgotten himself? But he elsewhere vin- 
dicates himself from this calumny, where he calls the Father 
the fountain of the whole Deity, because he is from no other ; 
wisely considering that the name of .God is especially ascribed 
to the Father, because, unless the original be from him, it is 
impossible to conceive of the simple unity of the Deity. 
These observations, I hope, will be approved by the pious 
reader, as sufficient to refute all the calumnies, with which 
Satan has hitherto laboured to pervert or obscure the purity of 
‘his doctrine. Finally, I trust that the whole substance of this 
doctrine has been faithfully stated and explained, provided my 
readers set bounds to their curiosity, and are not unreasonably 
fond of tedious and intricate controversies. For I have not the 
least expectation of giving satisfaction to those who are pleased 
with an intemperance of speculation. I am sure I have used 
no artifice in the omission of any thing, from a supposition 
that it would make against me. But, studying the edification 
of the Church, I have thought it better not to touch upon 
many things, which would be unnecessarily burdensome to the 
reader, without yielding him any profit. For to what purpose is 
it to dispute, whether the Father be always begetting? For 
it is foolish to imagine a continual act of generation, since it is 
evident that three Persons have subsisted in God from all 
eternity. 


150 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK I. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


THE TRUE GOD CLEARLY DISTINGUISHED IN THE SCRIPTURE 
FROM ALL FICTITIOUS ONES BY THE CREATION OF THE WORLD. 


AutruoueH Isaiah (m) brings a just accusation of stupidity 
against the worshippers of fictitious deities, for not having 
learned, from the foundations of the earth, and the circuit of 
the heavens, who was the true God, yet such is the slowness 
and dulness of our minds, as to induce a necessity for a more 


express exhibition of the true God, lest the faithful should de- 


cline to the fictions of the heathen. For, since the most toler- 
able description given by the philosophers, that God is the soul 
of the world, is utterly vain and worthless, we require a more 
familiar knowledge of him, to prevent us from wavering in per- 
petual uncertainty. Therefore he hath been pleased to give us 
a history of the creation, on which the faith of the Church 
might rest, without seeking after any other God than him 
whom Moses has represented as the former and builder of the 
world. The first thing specified in this history is the time, 
that by a continued series of years the faithful might arrive at 
the first original of the human race, and of' all things. © This 
knowledge is eminently useful, not only to contradict the 
monstrous fables formerly received in Egypt and other coun- 
tries, but also to give us clearer views of the eternity of God, 
and to fill us with greater admiration of it. Nor ought we to 
be moved with that profane sneer, that it is marvellous that 
God did not form the design of creating heaven and earth at 
an earlier period, but suffered an immeasurable duration to pass 
away unemployed, since he could have made them many thou- 
sands of ages before ; whereas the continuance of the world, 
now advancing to its last end, has not yet reached six thousand 
years. For the reason why God deferred it so long, it would 
be neither lawful nor expedient to inquire; because, if the 
human mind strive to penetrate it, it will fail a hundred times 
in the attempt; nor, indeed, could there be any utility in the 
knowledge of that which God himself, in order to prove the 
modesty of our faith, has purposely concealed. Great shrewd- 
ness was discovered by a certain pious old man, who, when 
some scoffer ludicrously inquired what God had been doing 
before the creatton of the world, replied that he had been 
making hell for over curious men. ‘This admonition, no less 


' (m) Isaiah xl. 21. 


CHAP. XIV. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 151 


grave than severe, should repress the wantonness which stim- 
ulates many, and impels them to perverse and injurious spec- 
ulations. Lastly, let us remember that God, who is invisible, 
and whose wisdom, power, and justice, are incomprehensible, 
has placed before us the history of Moses, as a mirror which 
exhibits his lively image. For as eyes, either dim through 
age, or dull through any disease, see nothing distinctly without 
the assistance of spectacles, so, in our inquiries after God, such 
is our imbecility, without the guidance of the Scripture we 
immediately lose our way. But those who indulge their pre- 
sumption, since they are now admonished in vain, will per- 
ceive too late, by their horrible destruction, how much better it | 
would have been to look up to the secret counsels of God with 
reverential awe, than to disgorge their blasphemies to darken 
the heaven. Augustine justly complains, that it is an offence 
against God, to inquire for any cause of things, higher than his 
will. He elsewhere prudently cautions us, that it is as absurd 
to dispute concerning an infinite duration of time, as concern- 
ing an infinite extent of place. However extensive the circuit 
of the heavens, yet certainly it has some dimensions. Now, if 
any one should expostulate with God, that the vacuity of space 
is a hundred times larger, would not such arrogance be detested 
by all pious persons? The same madness is chargeable on those 
who censure the inaction of God, for not having, according to 
their wishes, created the world innumerable ages before. T'c 
gratify their inordinate curiosity, they desire to pass beyond 
the limits of the world ; as though, in the very ample circum- 
ference of heaven and earth, we were not surrounded by numer- 
ous objects capable of absorbing all our senses in their inesti- 
mable splendour ; as though, in the course of six thousand years, 
God had not given us lessons sufficient to exercise our minds 
in assiduous meditation on them. ‘Then let us cheerfully re- 
main within these barriers with which God has been pleased 
to circumscribe us, and as it were to confine our minds, that 
they might not be wandering in the boundless regions of un- 
certain conjecture. 

II. To the same purpose is the narration of Moses, that the 
work of God was completed, not in one moment, but in six 
days. For by this circumstance also we are called away from 
all false deities to the only true God, who distributed his work 
into six days, that it might not be tedious to us to occupy the 
whole of life in the consideration of it. For though, whither- 
soever we turn our eyes, they are constrained to behold the 
works of God, yet we see how transient our attention is, and, 
if we are touched with any pious reflections, how soon they 
leave us again. Here, also, human reason murmurs, as though 
such progressive works were inconsistent with the power of 


152 INSTITUTES OF THE | [Book I. 


Deity ; till, subdued to the obedience of faith, it learns to ob- . 
serve that rest, to which the sanctification of the seventh day 
invites us. Now, in the order of those things, we must dil- 
igently consider the paternal love of God towards the human 
race, in not creating Adam before he had enriched the earth 
with an abundant supply of every thing conducive to his hap- 
piness. For had he placed him in the earth while it remained 
barren and vacant, had he given him hfe before there was any 
light, he would have appeared not very attentive to his benefit. 
Now, when he has regulated the motions of the sun and the 
stars for the service of man, replenished the earth, the air, and 
the waters, with living creatures, and caused the earth to pro-— 
duce an abundance of all kinds of fruits sufficient for suste- 
nance, he acts the part of a provident and sedulous father of 
a family, and displays his wonderful goodness towards us. 
If the reader will more attentively consider with himself these 
things, which I only hint at as I proceed, he will be convineed 
that Moses was an authentic witness and herald of the one God, 
the Creator of the world. I pass over what I have already 
stated, that he not only speaks of the mere essence of God, 
but also exhibits to us his eternal Wisdom and his Spirit, in 
order that we may not dream of any other God except him 
who will be known in that express image. 

Ilf. But before I begin to enlarge on the nature of man, 
something must be said concerning angels. Because, though 
Moses, in the history of the creation, accommodating himself 
to the ignorance of the common people, mentions no other 
works of God than such as are visible to our eyes, yet, when 
he afterwards mtroduces angels as ministers of God, we may 
easily conclude, that he is their Creator, whom they obey, and 
in whose service they are employed. ‘Though Moses, there- 
fore, speaking mm a popular manner, does not, in the beginning 
of his writings, immediately enumerate the angels among the 
creatures of God, yet nothing forbids our here making a plain 
and explicit statement of those things which the Scripture 
teaches in other places; because, 1f we desire to know God 
from his works, such an excellent and noble specimen should 
by no means be omitted. Besides, this point of doctrine is 
very necessary for the confutation of many errors. The ex- 
cellence of the angelic nature has so dazzled the minds of 
many, that they have supposed them to be injured, if they 
were treated as mere creatures, subject to the government of 
one God. Hence they were falsely pretended to possess a 
kind of divinity. Manichzus has also arisen, with the sect 
which he founded, who imagined to himself two original prin- | 
ciples, God and the devil; and attributed to God the origin of 
all good things, but referred evil natures to the production of 


CHAP. XIv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 153 


the devil. If our minds were bewildered in this wild and in- 
coherent system, we should not leave God in full possession 
of his glory in the creation of the world. For, since nothing 
is more peculiar to God than eternity and self-existence, does 
not the ascription of this to the devil dignify him with a title 
of Divinity? Now, where is the omnipotence of God, if such 
an empire be conceded to the devil, as that he can execute 
whatever he pleases, notwithstanding the aversion of the 
Divine will, or opposition of the Divine power? But the 
only foundation of the system of Manicheeus, that it is unlaw- 
ful to ascribe to a good God the creation of any evil thing, in 
no respect affects the orthodox faith, which admits not that 
any thing in the universe is evil in its nature; since neither 
the depravity and wickedness of men and devils, nor the sins 
which proceed from that source, are from mere nature, but from 
a corruption of nature; nor from the beginning has any thing 
existed, in which God has not given a specimen both of his 
wisdom and of his justice. ‘T'’o oppose these perverse notions, 
it is necessary to raise our minds higher than our eyes can 
reach. And it is very probable that it was with this design, 
when, in the Nicene creed, God is called the Creator of all 
things, that particular mention is made of things invisible. 
Yet it shall be my study to observe the limit which the rule 
of piety prescribes, lest, by indulging an unprofitable degree 
of speculation, I should lead the reader astray from the sim- 
plicity of the faith. And certainly, since the Spirit invariably 
teaches us in a profitable manner, but, with regard to things 
of little importance to edification, either is wholly silent, or 
but lightly and cursorily touches on them, — it is also our duty 
cheerfully to remain in ignorance of what it is not for our ad- 
vantage to know. 

IV. Since angels are ministers of God appointed to execute 
his commands, (7) that they are also his creatures, ought to 
be admitted without controversy. And does it not betray ob- 
stinacy rather than diligence, to raise any contention concern- 
ing the time or the order in which they were created? Moses 
narrates, that ‘‘the heavens and the earth were finished, and 
all the host of them:” (0) to what purpose is it anxiously to 
inquire, on what day, besides the stars and the planets, the 
other more concealed hosts of heaven began to exist? Not 
to be too prolix, let us remember on this point (as on the 
whole doctrine of religion) to observe one rule of modesty 
and sobriety ; which is, not to speak, or think, or even desire 
to know, concerning obscure subjects, any thing beyond the 
information given us in the Divine word. Another rule to be 


(n) Psalm ciii. 20. (0) Gen. 1. 1. 
VOL. I. 20 


154 INSTITUTES OF THE  [Boox 1. 


followed is, in reading the Scripture, continually to direct our 
attention to investigate and meditate upon things conducive 
to edification ; not to indulge curiosity or the study of things 
unprofitable. And, since,the Lord has been pleased to in- 
struct us, not in frivolous questions, but in solid piety, the fear 
of his name, true confidence, and the duties of holiness, let us 
content ourselves with that knowledge. Wherefore, if we 
wish to be truly wise, we must forsake the vain imaginations 
propagated by triflers concerning the nature, orders, and mul- 
titude of angels. I know that these things are embraced by 
many persons with greater avidity, and dwelt upon with more 
pleasure, than such things as are in daily use. But, if it be 
not irksome to be the disciples of Christ, it should not be irk- 
some to follow that method which he has prescribed. ‘Then 
the consequence will be, that, content with his discipline, we 
shall not only leave, but. also ‘abhor, those unprofitable specu- 
lations from which he calls us away. No man can deny that 
great subtlety and acuteness is discovered by Dionysius, who- 
ever he was, in many parts of his treatise on the Celestial 
Hierarchy ; but, if any one enters into a critical examination 
of it, he will find the greatest part of it to be mere babbling. 
But the duty of a theologian is, not to please the ear with 
empty sounds, but to confirm the conscience by teaching 
things which are true, certain, and profitable. A reader of 
that book would suppose that the author was a man descended 
from heaven, giving an account of things that he had not 
learned from the information of others, but had seen with his 
own eyes. But Paul, who was “caught up to the third 
heaven,’ (p) not only has told us no such things, but has 


even declared, that it is not lawful for men to utter the secret . 


things which he had seen. T'aking our leave, therefore, of 
this nugatory wisdom, let us consider, from the simple doctrine 
of the Scripture, what the Lord has been pleased for us to 
know concerning his angels. 

V. We are frequently informed in the Scripture, that angels 
are celestial spirits, whose ministry and service God uses for 
the execution of whatever he has decreed; and hence this 
hame is given to them, because God employs them as mes- 
sengers to manifest himself to men. Other appellations also, 
by which they are distinguished, are derived from a similar 
cause. ‘They are called Hosts, because, as life-guards, they 
surround their prince, ag gerandizing his majesty, and rendering 
it conspicuous; and, like soldiers, are ever attentive to the 
signal of their leader's and are so prepared for the performance 
of his comimands, that he has no sooner signified his will than 


(p) 2 Cor. xii. 1, &c. 


an) a 


CHAP. XIv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 155 


they are ready for the work, or rather are actually engaged in 
it. Such a representation of the throne of God is exhibited 
in the magnificent descriptions of the Prophets, but particularly 
of Daniel; where he says, when God had ascended the judg- 
ment-seat, that ‘“‘ thousand thousands ministered unto him, and 
ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.” (q) Since 
by their means the Lord wonderfully exerts and declares the 
power and strength of his hand, thence they are denominated 
Powers. (r) Because by them he exercises and administers 
his government in the world, therefore they are called some- 
times Principalities, sometimes Powers, sometimes Dominions. 
Lastly, because the glory of God in some measure resides in 
them, they have also, for this reason, the appellation of 
Thrones ;(s) although on this last name I would affirm 
nothing, because a different interpretation is equally or even 
more suitable. But; omitting this name, the Holy Spirit often 
uses the former ones, to magnify the dignity of the angelic 
ministry. Nor, indeed, is it right that no honour should be 
paid to those instruments, by whom God particularly exhibits 
the presence of his power. Moreover, they are more than 
once called gods; because in their ministry, as in a mirror, 
they give us an imperfect representation of Divinity. Though 
I am pleased with the interpretation of the old writers, on 
those passages where the Scripture records the appearance of 
an angel of God to Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and others, (¢) that 
Christ was that angel, yet frequently, where mention is made 
of angels in general, this name is given to them. Nor should 
this surprise us; for, if that honour be given to princes and 
governors, because, in the performance of their functions, they 
are vicegerents of God, the supreme King and Judge, (v) there 
is far greater reason for its being paid to angels, in whom the 
splendour of the Divine glory is far more abundantly displayed. 

VI. But the Scripture principally insists on what might 
conduce most to our consolation, and the confirmation of our 
faith —- that the angels are the dispensers and administrators. of 
the Divine beneficence towards us; and therefore it informs 
us, that they guard our safety, undertake our defence, direct 
our ways, and exercise a constant solicitude that no evil befall 
us. ‘The declarations are universal, belonging primarily to 
Christ the head of the @hurch, and then to all the faithful: 
‘‘ He shall give his-angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all 
thy ways. ‘They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou 
dash thy foot against a stone.’ (w) Again, “The angel of 
the Lord encampeth round about them that fear-him, and de- 


(q) Daniel vii. 10. (r) Ephes. i. 21. (s) Col. i. 16. 
t) Gen. xviii. 2; xxxul. 1, 28. Josh. v.13. Judges vi. 11; xiii. 3, 22. 
(2) g 
(v) Psalm Ixxxii. 6. (w) Psalm xci. 11, 12. 


156 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 1 


livereth them.’ (2) In these passages God shows that he 
delegates to his angels the protection of those whom he has 
undertaken to preserve. Accordingly, the angel of the Lord 
_consoles the fugitive Hagar, and commands her to be recon-_ 
ciled to her mistress. (y) Abraham promises his servant that 
an angel should be the guide of his journey.(z) Jacob, m 
his benediction of Ephraim and Manasseh, prays that the an- 
gel of the Lord, by whom he had been redeemed from all evil, 
would cause them to prosper.(a) ‘Thus an angel was ap- 
pointed to protect the camp of the Israelites ; (0) and whenever 
it pleased God to deliver them from the hands of their enemies, 
he raised up avengers by the ministry of angels.(¢) And 
finally, to supersede the necessity of adducing more examples, 
angels ministered to Christ and attended him in all his dif- 
ficulties ; they announced his resurrection to the women, and 
his glorious advent to the disciples.(d) And thus, in the dis- 
charge of their office as our protectors, they contend against 
the devil and all our enemies, and execute the vengeance of 
God on those who molest us; as we read that an angel of God, 
to deliver Jerusalem from a siege, slew a hundred and eighty- 
five thousand men in the camp of the king of Assyria in one 
night. (e) 

VII. But whether each of the faithful has a particular angel 
assigned him for his defence, I cannot venture certainly to af- 
firm. When Daniel introduces the angel of the Persians and 
the angel of the Greeks, (f/f) he clearly signifies that certain 
angels are appointed to preside over kingdoms and provinces. 
Christ also, when he says that the angels of children always 
behold the face of the Father, (g) suggests, that there are cer- 
tain angels who are charged with their safety. But I know 
not whether this justifies the conclusion, that every one of 
them has his particular guardian angel. Of this, indeed, we 
may be certain, that not one angel only has the care of every one 
of us, but that they all with one consent watch for our salvation. 
For it is said of all the angels together, that they rejoice more 
over one sinner turned to repentance, than over ninety and nine 
just persons who have persevered in their righteousness. (/) 
Of more than one angel it is said, that they carried the soul of 
Lazarus into the bosom of Abraham. (7) Nor is it in vain that 
Elisha shows his servant so many fiery chariots, which were 
peculiarly assigned to him for his protection. (4) There is one 
place which seems clearer than the rest in confirmation of this 


(x) Psalm xxxiv. 7. y) Gen. xvi. 9. (z) Gen. xxiv. 7. © 
(a) Gen. xlviii.16.  (b) Exod. xiv.19; xxiii. 20. | (c) Judges ii.1; vi.11; xii. 3, &e 
(d) Matt. iv.11. Luke xxii. 43. Matt. xxviii.5. Luke xxiv.4,5. Acts i. 10. 
(ce) 2 Kings xix. 35. Isaiah xxxvii. 36. (f) Daniel x. 13, 20; xii. 1. 
(g) Matt. xviii, 10. (4) Luke xv.7. = (¢) -Luke xvi. 22. (k) 2 Kings wa. .? 


CHAP. XIv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 157 


point. For when Peter, on his liberation from prison, knocked _ 
at the door of the house in which the brethren were assembled, 
as they could not suppose it to be Peter himself, they said it 
was his angel. (/) This conclusion seems to have arisen in 
their minds from the common opinion that each of the faithful 
has his guardian angel assigned him. But here it may also be 
replied, that nothing prevents this being understood of any one 
of the angels, to whom the Lord might have committed the 
care of Peter on that occasion, and who yet might not be his 
perpetual guardian ; as it is vulgarly imagined that every per- 
son has two angels, a good one and a bad one, according to the 
heathen notion of different genii. But it is not worth while 
anxiously to investigate what it little concerns us to know. For 
if any one be not satisfied with this, that all the orders of the 
celestial army watch for his safety, Isee not what advantage 
he can derive from knowing that he has one particular angel 
given him for his guardian. But those who restrict to one 
angel the care which God exercises over every one of us, do a 
great injury to themselves, and to all the members of the 
Church ; as though those auxiliaries had been promised in vain, 
who, by surrounding and defending us on all sides, contribute to 
increase our courage in the conflict. 

VIL. Let those, who venture to determine concerning the 
multitude and orders of the angels, examine on what foun- 
dation their opinions rest. Michael, I confess, is called in Dan- 
iel “the great prince,” and in Jude “the archangel.” (7) And 
Paul informs us that it will be an archangel, who, with the 
sound of a trumpet, shall summon men to judgment.(z) But 
who, from these passages, can determine the degrees of honour 
among the angels, distinguish the individuals by their respec- 
tive titles, and assign to every one his place and station? 
For the two names which are found in the Scripture, Michael 
and Gabriel, and the third, if you wish to add it from the, 
history of ‘Tobias, (0) may appear, from their significations, to 
be given to angels on account of our infirmity ; though I would 
rather leave this undetermined. With respect to their num- 
bers, we hear, from the mouth of Christ, of many legions ; (p) 
from Daniel, of many myriads: (q) the servant of Elisha saw 
many chariots; and their being said to encamp round about 
them that fear God, (r) is expressive of a great multitude. It 
is certain that spirits have no form; and yet the Scripture, on 
account of the slender capacity of our minds, under the names 
of cherubim and seraphim, represents angels to us as having 
wings, to prevent our doubting that they will always attend, with 


(1) Acts xii. 15. (m) Daniel xii. 1. Jude, ver. 9. (n) 1 Thess. iv. 16, 
(0) Daniel x. 13,21; viii. 16; ix. 21. Luke i. 19, 26. Tob. iti. 17; v. 5, 
(p) Matt. xxvi. 53. (q) Daniel vii. 10. (r) Psalm xxxiv. 7. 


158 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 1, 


incredible celerity, to afford us assistance as soon as our cased 
require it; as though the lightning darted from heaven were to 
fly to us with its accustomed velocity. All further inquiries on 
both these points, we should consider as belonging to that class 
of mysteries, the full revelation of which is deferred to the last 
day. Wherefore let us remember that we ought to avoid too 
much curiosity of research, and presumption of language. 

IX. But this, which is called in question by some restless 
men, ‘must be received as a certain truth, that angels are 
ministering spirits, whose service God uses for the protection 
of his people, and by whom he dispenses his benefits among 
mankind, and executes his other works. It was the opinion 
of the ancient Sadducees, indeed, that the term angels signified 
nothing but the motions ‘which God inspires into men, or those 
specimens which he gives of his power. But this foolish no- 
tion is repugnant to so many testimonies of Scripture, that 
it is surprising how such gross ignorance could have been 
tolerated among that people. For, to omit the places before 
cited, where mention is made of thousands and legions of 
angels ; where joy is attributed to them; where they are said to 
sustain the faithful in their hands, to carry their souls into rest, 
to behold the face of the Father, (s) and the like, —there are 
others which most clearly evince, that they are spirits possess- 
ing an actual existence and their own peculiar nature. For 
the declarations of Stephen and Paul, —that the law was 
given by the hand of angels, (¢) and of Christ, that the elect, 
after the resurrection, shall be lke angels; that the day of 
judgment is not known even to the angels; that he then will 
come with his holy angels, (v)— however tortured, must ne- 
cessarily be thus understood. Likewise, when Paul charges 
Timothy, before Christ and the elect angels, to keep his pre- 
cepts, (w) he intends, not unsubstantial qualities or inspirations, 
but real spirits. Nor otherwise is there any meaning in what 
we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews, that Christ is made 
more excellent than the angels, that the world is not subject to 
them, that Christ assumed not their nature, but the nature of 
man, (z) unless we understand that there are happy spirits, to 
whom these comparisons may apply. And the author of the 
same epistle explains himself, where he places angels and the 
souls of the faithful together in the kingdom of God. (y) Be- 
sides, we have already quoted, that the angels of children 
always behold the face of God; that we are always defended 
by their protection ; that they rejoice for our safety ; that they 


(s) Luke xv. 10; iv. 10; xvi. 22. Psalm xci. 12. Matt. iv.6; xviii. 10. 
(t) Acts vii. 53. Gal. iii. 19, 
(v) Matt. xxii. 30; xxiv. 36; xxv. 31. Luke ix. 26. (w) 1 Tim. v. 21. 
(x) Heb. i. 4; i. 16. (y) Heb. xii. 22, 23. 


Ritdrc . 


CHAP. xiv. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 159 


admire the manifold grace of God in the church ;(z) and are 
subject to Christ as their head.(a) The same truth is proved 
by their having so often appeared to the patriarchs in the form 
of men, conversed with them, and been entertained by them. 
And Christ himself, on account of the preéminence which he 
obtains in the capacity of Mediator, is called an angel.(b) I 
have thought proper cursorily to touch on this point, in order 
to fortify the simple against those foolish and absurd notions, 
which were disseminated by Satan many ages ago, and are 
frequently springing up afresh. 

X. It remains for us to encounter the superstition, which 
generally insinuates itself into men’s. minds when angels are 
said to be the ministers and dispensers of all our blessings. 
For human reason soon falls into an opinion, that there is no 
honour that ought not to be paid to them. Thus it happens 
that what belongs solely to God and Christ, is transferred to 
them. ‘Thus we see, that for some ages past the glory of 
Christ has in many ways been obscured ; while angels have been 
loaded with extravagant honours without the authority of the 
word of God. And among the errors which we combat in the 
present day, there is scarcely one more ancient than this. For 
even Paul appears to have had a great controversy with some, 
who exalted angels in such a manner as almost to degrade 
Christ to an inferior station. Hence the solicitude with which 
he maintains, in the Epistle to the Colossians, not only that 
Christ is to be esteemed above angels, but also that he is the 
author of all blessings to them, (c) in order that we may not 
forsake him and turn to them, who are not even sufficient for 
themselves, but draw from the same fountain as we do. Since 
the splendour of the Divine majesty, therefore, is eminently dis- 
played in them, there is nothing more natural than for us to 
fall down with astonishment in adoration of them, and to at- 
tribute every thing to them which exclusively belongs to God. 
Even John, in the Revelation, confesses this to have happened 
to himself; but adds at the same time, that he was thus 
answered : “ See thou do it not: I am thy fellow-servant : wor- 
ship God.” (d) 

‘XI. But this danger we shall happily avoid, if we consider 
why God is accustomed to provide for the safety of the faith- 
ful, and to communicate the gifts of his beneficence by means 
of angels, rather than by himself to manifest his own power 
without their intervention. He certainly does this not from 
necessity, as though he were unable to do without them; for 
whenever he pleases he passes them by, and performs his work 
with a mere nod of his power; so far is he from being indebt- 


(z) 1 Peter i. 12. (a) Heb. i. 6. (b) Mal. iii. 1. 
(c) Col. i. 16, 20. (d) Rev. xix. 10; xxii. 8, 9. 


16uU INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 1. 


ed to their assistance for relieving him in any difficulty. This, 
therefore, conduces to the consolation’ of our imbecility, that 
Wwe may want nothing that can either raise our minds to a good 
hope, or confirm them in security. This one thing, indeed, 
ought to be more than sufficient for us, that the Lord declares 
himself to be our Protector. But while we see ourselves en- 
compassed with so many dangers, so many annoyances, such 
various kinds of enemies, — such is our weakness and frailty, 
that we may sometimes be filled with terror, or fall into de- 
spair, unless the Lord enables us, according to our capacity, to 
discover the presence of his grace. For this reason he prom- 
ises, not only that he will take care of us himself, but also that 
we shall have innumerable life-guards, to whom he has com- 
mitted the charge of our safety ; and that, as long as we are 
surrounded by their superintendence and protection, whatever 
danger may threaten, we are placed beyond the utmost reach 
of evil. , I confess, indeed, that it is wrong for us, after that 
simple promise of the protection of God alone, still to be look- 
ing around to see from what quarter our aid may come. But 
since the Lord, from his infinite clemency and goodness, is 
pleased to assist this our weakness, there is no reason why we 
should neglect this great favour which he shows us. We have 
an example of this in the servant of Elisha, who, when he saw 
that the mountain was besieged by an army of Syrians, (e) and 
that no way of escape was left, was filled with consternation, 
as though himself and his master had been ruined. Then 
Elisha prayed that God would open his eyes, and he immedi- 
ately saw the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire; that 
is, of a multitude of angels who were to guard him and the 
Prophet. Encouraged by this vision, he came to himself again, 
and was able to look down with intrepidity on the enemies, 
the sight of whom before had almost deprived him of life. 
XII. Therefore, whatever is said concerning the ministry of 
angels, let us direct it to this end, that, overcoming all diffi. 
dence, our hope in God may be more firmly established. For 
the Lord has provided these guards for us, that we may not 
be terrified by a multitude of enemies, as though they could 
prevail in opposition to his assistance, but may have recourse to 
the sentiment expressed by Elisha, “There are more for us 
than against us.”” How preposterous is it, then, that we should 
be alienated from God by angels, who are appointed for this 
very purpose, to testify that his aid is more especially present 
with us! But they do alienate us from him, unless they lead 
us directly to him, to regard him, call on him, and celebrate 
him as our only helper; unless they are considered by us as 


(e) 2 Kings vi. 15, 16, 17. 


CHAP. XIv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 161 


his hands, which apply themselves to do_nothing without his 
direction ; unless they attach us to Christ, the only Mediator, to 
depend entirely on him, to lean upon him, to aspire to him, and 
to rest satisfied in him. For what is described in the vision of 
Jacob (f) ought to be firmly fixed in our minds, that the an- 
gels descend to the earth to men, and ascend from earth to 
heaven, by a ladder above which stands the Lord of hosts. 
This implies, that it is only through the intercession of Christ, 
that we are favoured with the ministry of angels, as he himself 
affirms: ‘ Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels 
descending upon the Son of man.” (g) Therefore the servant 
of Abraham, having been commended to the care of an an- 
gel, (h) does not therefore invoke him for his aid, but, trusting 
to that committal, pours out his prayers before the Lord, and 
entreats him to display his mercy towards Abraham. For as 
God does not make them the ministers of his power and good- 
ness, in order to divide his glory with them, so neither does 
he promise his assistance in their ministry, that we may divide 
our confidence between them and him. Let us take our leave, 
therefore, of that Platonic philosophy, which seeks access to 
God by means of angels, and worships them in order to render 
him more propitious to us; which superstitious and curious 
men have endeavoured from the beginning, and even to this 
day persevere in attempting, to introduce into our religion. 
XIII. The design of almost every thing that the Scripture 
teaches concerning devils, is that we may be careful to guard 
against their insidious machinations, and may provide ourselves 
with such weapons as are sufliciently firm and strong to repel 
the most powerful enemies. For when Satan is called the god 
and prince of this world, (7) the strong man armed, (/) the 
prince of the power of the air, (/) a roaring lion, (mm) these 
descriptions only tend to make us more cautious and vigilant, 
and better prepared to encounter him. ‘This is sometimes sig- 
nified in express words. For Peter, after having said that ‘“ the 
devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may 
devour,” immediately subjoims an exhortation to “resist him, 
steadfast in the faith.”” And Paul, having suggested that ‘we 
wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, 
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, 
against spiritual wickedness,” (m) immediately commands us to 
put on suitable armour for so great and so perilous a conflict. 
Wherefore, having been previously warned that we are perpet- 
ually threatened by an enemy, and an enemy desperately bold 


(f) Gen. xxviii. 12. (k) Matt. xii. 29. Luke xi. 21. 
(g) John i. 51. (lt) Ephes. ii. 2. 

(hk) Gen. xxiv. 7, 12, 27, 52. (m) 1 Peter vy. 8, 9. 

(i) 2 Cor. iv. 4. John xii. 31. (n) Ephes. vi. 12, &c. 


VOL. 1. ERR 


162 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK ¢ 


and extremely strong, skilled in every artifice, indefatigable in 
diligence and celerity, abundantly provided with all kinds of 


weapons, and most expert in the science of war, let us make it 


the grand object of our attention, that we suffer not ourselves 
to be oppressed with slothfulness and inactivity, but, on the 
contrary, arousing and collecting all our courage, be ready fora 
vigorous resistance ; and as this warfare is terminated only by 
death, let us encourage ourselves to perseverance. But, above 
all, conscious of weakness and ignorance, let us implore the as- 
sistance of God, nor attempt any thing but in reliance on him; 
since he alone can supply us with wisdom, and strength, and 
courage, and armour. 

XIV. But, the more to excite and urge us to such conduct, the 
Scripture announces that there are not one, or two, or a ‘few 
enemies, but great. armies who wage war against us. For even 
Mary Magdalene is said to have been delivered from seven de- 
mons, by whom she was possessed ; (0) and Christ declares.it to 
be a common case, that, if you leave the place open for the re- 
entrance of a demon who has once been ejected, he associates 
with himself seven spirits more wicked still, and returns to his 
vacant possession. (p) Indeed, one man is said to have been pos- 
sessed by a whole legion. (q) By these passages, therefore, we 
ire taught, that we have to contend with an infinite multitude 
of enemies ; lest, despising their paucity, we should be more re- 
miss to encounter them, or, expecting sometimes an intermission 
of hostility, should indulge ourselves in idleness. But when 
one Satan or devil is frequently mentioned in the singular 
number, it denotes that principality of wickedness which op- 
poses the kingdom of righteousness. For as the Church and 
society of saints have Christ as their head, so the faction of 
the impious, and impiety itself, are represented to us with their 
prince, who exercises the supreme power among them; which 
is the meaning of that sentence, ‘“‘ Depart, ye cursed, into ever- 
lasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” (7) 

XV. It also ought to stimulate us to a perpetual war with 
the devil, that he is every where called God’s adversary and 
ours. For, if we feel the concern which we ought to feel for 
the glory of God, we shall exert all our power against him 
who attempts the extinction of it. If we are animated by a 
becoming zeal for defending the kingdom of Christ, we must 
necessarily have an irreconcilable war with him. who con- 
spires its ruin. On the other hand, if we are solicitous for 
our salvation, we ought to make neither peace nor truce with 
him who assiduously plots its destruction. Now, such is the 
description given of him in the third chapter of Genesis, where 


(0) Mark xvi. 9. (q) Luke viii. 30. 
(p) Matt. xii. 43—45. (r) Matt. xxv. 41. 


ae —= 


CHAP. XIV. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 163 


he seduces man from the obedience owed by him to God, so 
that he at once robs God of his just honour, and precipitates 
man into ruin. Such, also, is he described in the Evangelists, 
where he is called an enemy, and said to sow tares in order to 
corrupt the seed of eternal life.(s) In short, the testimony of 
Christ concerning him, that he was a murderer and a liar from 
the beginning, (¢) we find verified in all his actions. For he 
opposes Divine truth with lies; obscures the light with shades 
of darkness ; involves the minds of men in errors; stirs up 
animosities, and kindles contentions and wars ; —and all for the 
purpose of subverting the kingdom of God, and plunging man- 
kind with himself into eternal destruction. Whence it is evi- 
dent, that he is naturally depraved, vicious, malignant, and 
mischievous. For there must be extreme depravity in that 
mind which is bent on opposing the glory of God and the sal- 
vation of men. And this is suggested by John in his Epistle, 
when he says, that “‘he sinneth from the beginning.” For he 
intends, that he is the author, conductor, and principal con- 
triver of all wickedness and iniquity. 

XVI. But since the devil was created by God, we must re- 
mark, that this wickedness which we attribute to his nature 
is not from creation, but from corruption. For whatever evil 
quality he has, he has acquired by his defection and fall. And 
of this the Scripture apprizes us; lest, believing him to have 
come from God, just as he now is, we should ascribe to God 
himself that which is in direct opposition to him. For this 
reason Christ declares, that Satan, ‘‘ when he speaketh a lie, 
speaketh of his own ;” (v) and adds the reason — “‘ because he 
abode not in the truth.’”’ When he says that he abode not in 
the truth, he certainly implies that he had once been in it ; and 
when he calls him the father of a lie, he precludes his impu- 
ting to God the depravity of hisnature, which originated wholly 
from himself. 'Though these things are delivered in a brief 
and rather obscure manner, yet they are abundantly sufficient 
to vindicate the majesty of God from every calumny. And 
what does it concern us to know, respecting devils, either more 
particulars, or for any other purpose? Some persons are dis- 
pleased that the Scripture does not give us, in various places, 
a distinct and detailed account of their fall, with its cause, man- 
ner, time, and nature. But, these things being nothing to us, 
it was better for them, if not to be passed over in total silence, 
yet certainly to be touched on but lightly ; because it would 
ill comport with the dignity of the Holy Spirit to feed curiosity 
with vain and unprofitable histories ; and we perceive it to have 
been the design of the Lord, to deliver nothing in his sacred 


(s) Matt. xiii. 25, 28, (t) John viii. 44... (wv) John viii. 44, 


164 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 1. 


oracles, which we might not learn to our edification. "That we 
ourselves, therefore, may not dwell upon unprofitable subjects, 
let us be content with this concise information resnecting the 
nature of devils; that at their creation they were originally 
angels of God, but by degenerating have ruined themselves, 
and become the instruments of perdition to others. ‘This being 
useful to be known, it is clearly stated by Peter and Jude. 


“God,” say they, “spared not the angels that sinned, and kept. 


not their first estate, but left their own habitation.” («) And 
Paul, mentioning the elect angels, (y) without doubt tacitly 
implies that there are reprobate ones. 

XVII. The discord and contention, which we say Satan 
maintains against God, ought to be understood in a manner 
consistent with a firm persuasion, that he can do nothing with- 
out God’s will and consent. For we read in the history of 
Job, that he presented himself before God to receive his com- 
mands, and dared not to undertake any enterprise without 
having obtained his permission.(z) Thus, also, when Ahab 
was to be deceived, he undertook to be a lying spirit in the 
mouth of all the prophets; and, being commissioned by God, 
he performed it.(a) For this reason he is also called the 
‘‘evil spirit from the Lord,” who tormented Saul, (5) because 
he was employed as a scourge to punish the sins of that im- 
pious monarch. And elsewhere it is recorded, that the plagues 
were inflicted on the Egyptians by the ‘“ evil angels.” (c) Ac- 
cording to these particular examples, Paul declares generally, 
that the blinding of unbelievers is the work of God, (d) where- 
as he had before called it the operation of Satan. It appears, 
then, that Satan is subject to the power of God, and so gov- 
erned by his control, that he is compelled to render obedience 
to him. Now, when we say that Satan resists God, and that 
his works are contrary to the works of God, we at the same 
time assert that this repugnance and contention depend on the 
Divine permission. I speak now, not of the will or the en- 
deavour, but only of the effect. For the devil, being naturally 
wicked, has not the least inclination towards obedience to the 
Divine will, but is wholly bent on insolence and rebellion. It 
therefore arises from himself and his wickedness, that he op- 
poses God with all his desires and purposes. 'This depravity 
stimulates him to attempt those things which he thinks the 
most opposed to God. But since God holds him tied and 
bound with the bridle of his power, he executes only those 
things which are divinely permitted; and thus, whether he 


(z) 2 Peter 11.4. Jude, ver. 6. (b) 1 Sam. xvi. 14; xviii. 10. 
(y) 1 Tim. v. 21. ; (c) Psalm Ixxviii. 49. 
(z) Job i. 6; ii. 1. (d) 2 Thess. ii. 9, 11. 


(a) 1 Kings zxii. 20, &c. 


CHAP. XIV. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. | 165 


will or not, he obeys his Creator, being constrained to fulfil 
any- service to which he impels him. 

XVIII. While God directs the courses of unclean spirits 
hither and thither at his pleasure, he regulates this government 
in such a manner, that they exercise the faithful with fighting, 
attack them in ambuscades, harass them with incursions, push 
them in battles, and frequently fatigue them, throw them into 
confusion, terrify them, and sometimes wound them, yet never 
conquer or overwhelm them; but subdue and lead captive the 
impious, tyrannize over their souls and bodies, and abuse them 
like slaves by employing them in the perpetration of every 
enormity. ‘The faithful, in consequence of being harassed by 
such enemies, are addressed with the following, and other sim- 
ilar exhortations: ‘Give not place to the devil.” (e) ‘“‘ Your 
adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking 
whom he may devour; whom resist, steadfast in the faith.” (f) 
Paul confesses that he himself was not free from this kind of 
warfare, when he declares that, as a remedy to subdue pride, 
“the messenger of Satan was given to him to buffet him.” (g) 
This exercise, then, is common to all the children of God. But, 
as the promise respecting the breaking of the head of Satan (h) 
belongs to Christ and all his members in common, I therefore 
deny that the faithful can ever be conquered or overwhelmed 
by him. ‘They are frequently filled with consternation, but 
recover themselves again; they fall by the violence of his 
blows, but are raised up again; they are wounded, but not 
mortally; finally, they labour through their whole lives in 
such a manner, as at last to obtain the victory. This, how- 
ever, is not to be restricted to each single action. For we 
know that, by the righteous vengeance of God, David was for 
a time delivered to Satan, that by his instigation he might 
number the people; (z) nor is it without reason that Paul ad- 
‘mits a hope of pardon even for those who may have been en- 
tangled in the snares of the devil.(k) Therefore the same 
Apostle shows, in another place, that the promise before cited 
is begun in this life, where we must engage in the conflict ; 
and that after the termination of the conflict it will be com- 
pleted. ‘And the God of peace,’ he says, “shall bruise 
Satan under your feet shortly.” (2) In our Head this victory, 
indeed, has always been complete, because the prince of this 
world had nothing in him: (mm) in us, who are his members, it 
yet appears only in part, but will be completed when we shall 
have put off our flesh, which makes us still subject to infirm- 


e) Ephes. iv. 27. i) 2. Sam. xxiv. 1. 1 Chron. xxi 1, 
( 

(f) 1 Peter v. 8. (k) 2 Tim. ii. 26. 

(g) 2 Cor. xii. 7. (1) Rom. xvi. 20. 


(h) Gen. iii. 15. , (m) John xiv. 30. 


166 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK 4. 


ities, and shall be full of the power of the Holy Spirit. In 
this manner, when the ‘kingdom of Christ is erected, Satan-and 
his power must fall; as the Lord himself says, “I beheld 
Satan as lightning falling from heaven.”(2) For by this 
answer he confirms what the Apostles had reported concerning 
the power of his preaching. Again: ‘ When a strong man 
armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace; but when 
a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him,’ 
é&c.(o) And to this end Christ by his death overcame Satan, 
who had the power of death, and triumphed over all his forces, 
that they might not be able to hurt the Church; for otherwise 
it would be in hourly danger of destruction. For such is our 
imbecility, and such the strength of his fury, how could we 
stand even for a moment against his various and unceasing at- 
tacks, without being supported by the victory of our Captain ? 
Therefore God permits not, Satan to exercise any power over 
the souls of the faithful, but abandons to his government 
only the impious and unbelieving, whom he designs not to 
number among his own flock. For he is said to have the 
undisturbed possession of this world, till he is expelled by 
Christ. (p) He is said also to blind all who believe not the 
Gospel, (q) and to work in the children of disobedience ; (7) 
and this justly, for all the impious are vessels of wrath. (s) To 
whom, therefore, should they be subjected, but to the minister 
of the Divine vengeance? Finally, they are said to be of their 
father the devil ; (¢) because, as the faithful are known to be 
the children of God from their bearing his image, (v) so the - 
impious, from the image of Satan into which they have de- 
generated, are properly considered as his children. 

XIX. But as we have already confuted that nugatory phi- 
losophy concerning the holy angels, which teaches that they 
are nothing but inspirations, or good motions, excited by God 
in the minds of men, so in this place we must refute those 
who pretend that devils are nothing but evil affections or per- 
turbations, which our flesh obtrudes on our minds. But this 
may be easily done, and that because the testimonies of Scrip- 
ture on this subject are numerous and clear. First, when they 
are called unclean spirits and apostate angels, (w) who have 
degenerated from their original condition, the very names suf- 
ficiently express, not mental emotions or affections, but rather 
in reality what are called minds, or spirits endued. with per- 
ception and intelligence. Likewise, when the children of God 
are compared with the children of the devil, both by Christ 
and by John, (z) would not the comparison be absurd, if noth- 


(n) Luke x. 18. (p) John xii. 31. (r) Eph. ii. 2. _(t) John viii. 44. 
(0) Luke xi. 21. = (g) 2 Cor. iv. 4. (s) Rom. ix. 22. (v) 1 John iii. 10. 
(w) Matt. xii. 43. Jude 6. (x) John vil. 44. 1 John iii. 10. 


CHAP. XIV CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 167 


ing were intended by the word devil but evil inspirations ? 
And John adds something still plainer, that the devil sins 
from the beginning. Likewise, when Jude introduces Michael 
the archangel contending with the devil, (y) he certainly op- 
poses to the good angel an evil and rebellious one; to which 
agrees what is recorded in the history of Job, that Satan ap- 
peared with the holy angels before God.(z) But the clearest 
of all are those passages, which mention the punishment which 
they begin to feel from the judgment of God, and are to feel 
much more at the resurrection: ‘ Thou Son of God, art thou 
come hither to torment us before the time?”’’(a) Also, ‘“ De- 
part, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and 
his angels.”(b) Again, ‘If God spared not the angels that 
sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into 
chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment,” &c. (c) 
How unmeaning were these expressions, that the devils are ap- 
pointed to eternal judgment; that fire is prepared for them; 
that they are now tormented and vexed by the glory of Christ, 
if there were no devils at all! But since this point is not a 
subject of dispute with those who give credit to the word of 
the Lord, but with those vain speculators who are pleased with 
nothing but novelty, little good can be effected by testimonies 
of Scripture. I consider myself as having done what I in- 
tended, which was to fortify the pious mind against such a 
species of errors, with which restless’ men disturb themselves 
and others that are more simple. But it was requisite to touch 
on it, lest any persons involved in that error, under a supposi- 
tion that they have no adversary, should become more slothful 
and incautious to resist him. 

XX. Yet let us not disdain to receive a pious delight from 
the works of God, which every where present themselves to 
view in this very beautiful theatre of the world. For this, as 
[ have elsewhere observed, though not the principal, is yet, in 
the order of nature, the first lesson of faith, to remember that, 
whithersoever we turn our eyes, all the things which we be- 
hold are the works of God; and at the same time to consider, 
with pious meditation, for what end God created them. There- 
fore to apprehend, by a true faith, what it is for our benefit to 
. know concerning God, we must first of all understand the his- 
tory of the creation of the world, as it is briefly related by Mo- 
ses, and afterwards more copiously illustrated by holy men, 
particularly by Basil and Ambrose. Thence we shall learn that 
God, by the power of his Word and Spirit, created out of noth- 
ing the heaven and the earth; that from them he produced all 
things, animate and inanimate ; distinguished by an admirable 


(y) Jude 9. (z) Job i, 6; ii. 1. (a) Matt. viii. 29. 
(6) Matt. xxv. 41. (c) 2 Peter ii. 4 


168 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 1. 


gradation the innumerable variety of things; to every species 
gave its proper nature, assigned its offices, and appointed its 
places and stations; and since all things are subject to corrup- 
tion, has, nevertheless, provided for the preservation of every 
species till the last day; that he therefore nourishes some by 
methods concealed from us, from time to time imfusing, as it 
were, hew vigour into them ; that on some he has conferrefl the 
power of propagation, im order that the whole speeies may not 
be extinct at their death; that he has thus wonderfully 
adorned heaven and earth with the utmost possible abundance, 
variety, and beauty, like a large and splendid mansion; most 
exquisitely and copiously furnished; lastly, that, by creating 
man, and distinguishing him with such splendid beauty, and 
with such numerous:and great privileges, he has exhibited in 
him a most excellent specimen of all his works. But since it 
is not my design to treat at large of the creation of the world, 
let it suffice to have again dropped these few hints by the way. 
For it is better, as I have just advised the reader, to seek for 
fuller information on this subject from Moses, and others who 
have faithfully and diligently recorded the history of the world. 

XXI. It is useless to enter into a prolix disputation respecting 
the right tendency and legitimate design of a consideration of 
the works of God, since this question has been, m a great 
measure, determined in another place, and, as much as coneerns 
our present purpose, may be despatched in few words. Indeed, 
if we wished to explain how the mestimable wisdom, power, 
justice, and goodness, of God are manifested in the formation of 
the world, no splendour or ornament of diction will equal the 
magnitude of so great a subject. And it is undoubtedly the 
will of the Lord, that we should be continually employed m 
this holy meditation; that, while we contemplate in all the 
creatures, as in so many mirrors, the infinite riches of his wis- 
dom, justice, goodness, and power, we might not only take a 
transient and cursory view of them, but might long dwe'l on 
the idea, seriously and faithfully revolve it in our minds, and 
frequently recall it to our memory. But, this being a didactic 
treatise, we must omit those topics which require long deelama- 
tions. To be brief, therefore, let the readers know, that they 
have then truly apprehended by faith what is meant by God 
being the Creator of heaven and earth, if they, in the first place, 
follow this universal rule, not to pass over, with ungrateful in- 
attention or oblivion, those glorious perfections which God 
manifests in his creatures; and, secondly, learn to make such 
an application to themselves as thoroughly to affect their hearts. 
The first point is exemplified, when we consider how great 
must have been the Artist who disposed that multitude of stars, 
which adorn the heaven, in such a regular order, that it is im- 


err 


CHAP. XIV. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 169 


possible to imagine any thing more beautiful to behold; who 
fixed some in their stations, so that they cannot be moved; who 
granted to others a freer course, but so that they never travel 
beyond their appointed limits; who so regulates the motions of 
all, that they measure days and nights, months, years, and sea- 
sons of the year; and also reduces the inequality of days, which 
we constantly witness, to such a medium that it occasions no 
confusion. So, also, when we observe his power in sustaining 
so great a mass, in governing the rapid revolutions of the celes- 
tial machine, and the like. For these few examples sufficiently 
declare, what it is to recognize the perfections of God in the 
/ creation of the world. Otherwise, were I desirous of pursuing 
the subject to its full extent, there would be no end; since 
there are as many miracles of Divine power, as many monu- 
ments of Divine goodness, as many proofs of Divine wisdom, as 
there are species of things in the world, and even as there are 
individual things, either great or small. 

XXII. There remains the other point, which approaches 
more nearly to faith; that, while we observe how God has ap- 
pointed all things for our benefit and safety, and at the same 
time perceive his power and grace in ourselves, and the great 
benefits which he has conferred on us, we may thence excite 
ourselves to confide in him, to invoke him, to praise him, and to 
love him. Now, as I have just before suggested, God himself 
has demonstrated, by the very order of creation, that he made 
all things for the sake of man. For it was not without reason 
that he distributed the making of the world into six days; 
though it would have been no more difficult for him to com- 
plete the whole work, in all its parts, at once, in a single mo- 
ment, than to arrive at its completion by such progressive ad- 
vances. But in this he has been pleased to display his provi- 
dence and paternal solicitude towards us; since, before he would 
make man, he prepared every thing which he foresaw would 
be useful or beneficial to him. How great would be, now, the 
ingratitude to doubt whether we are regarded by this best of 
fathers, whom we perceive to have been solicitous on our ac- 
count before we existed! How impious would it be to tremble 
with diffidence, lest at any time his benignity should desert us 
in our necessities, which we see was displayed in the greatest 
affluence of all blessings provided for us while we were yet 
unborn! Besides, we are told by Moses, (d) that his liberality 
has subjected to us all that is contained in the whole world. 
He certainly has not made this declaration in order to tantalize 
us with the empty name of such a donation. Therefore we 
never shall be destitute of any thing which will conduce to 


(d) Gen. i. 283 ix. 2. 
VOL. 1. 22 


170 INSTITULES OF THE [BooK 1. 


our welfare. Finally, to conclude, whenever we call God the 
Creator of heaven and earth, let us at the same time reflect, 
that the dispensation of all those things which he has made is 
in his own power, and that we are his children, whom he has 
received into his charge and custody, to be supported and edu- 
cated; so that we may expect every blessing from him alone, 
and cherish a certain hope that he will never suffer us to want 
those things which are necessary to our well-being, that our 
hope may depend on no other; that, whatever we need or 
desire, our prayers may be directed to him, and that, from what- 
ever quarter we receive any advantage, we may acknowledge 
it to be his benefit, and confess it with thanksgiving; that, 
being allured with such great sweetness of goodness and benefi- 
cence, we may study to love and worship him with all our 
hearts. 


CHAPTER XV. 


THE STATE OF MAN AT HIS CREATION, THE. FACULTIES OF THE 
SOUL, THE DIVINE IMAGE, FREE WILL, AND THE ORIGINAL 
PURITY OF HIS NATURE. 


We must now treat of the creation of man, not only because 
he exhibits the most noble and remarkable specimen of the 
Divine justice, wisdom, and goodness, among all the works of 
God, but because, as we observed in the beginning, we cannot 
attain to a clear and solid knowledge of God, without a mutual 
acquaintance with ourselves. But though this is twofold, — the 
knowledge of the condition in which we were originally cre- 
ated, and of that into which we entered after the fall of Adam, 
(for indeed we should derive but little advantage from a know- 
ledge of our creation, unless in the lamentable ruin which has 
befallen us we discovered the corruption and deformity of our 
nature, ) — yet we shall content ourselves at present with a de- 
scription of human nature in its primitive integrity. And, in- 
deed, before we proceed to the miserable condition in which 
man is now involved, it is necessary to understand the state in 
which he was first created. For we must beware lest, in 
precisely pointing out. the natural evils of man, we seem to 
refer them to the Author of nature ; since impious men suppose 
that this pretext affords them a sufficient defence, if they can 
plead that whatever defect or fault they have, proceeds in some 
measure from God; nor do they hesitate, if reproved, to litigate 
with God himself, and transfer to him the crime of which they 


CHAP. xv. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 171 


are justly accused. And those who would be thought to speak 
with more reverence concerning the Deity, yet readily en- 
deavour to excuse their depravity from nature, not considering 
that they also, though in a more obscure manner, are guilty of 
defaming the character of God; to whose dishonour it would 
redound, if nature could be proved to have had any innate deprav- 
_ ity at its formation. Since we see the flesh, therefore, eagerly 
catching at every subterfuge, by which it supposes that the 
blame of its evils may by any means be transferred from itself 
to any other, we must diligently oppose this perverseness. “The 
calamity of mankind must be treated in such a manner as to 
preclude all tergiversation, and to vindicate the Divine justice 
from every accusation. We shall afterwards, in the proper 
place, see how far men are fallen from that purity which was 
bestowed upon Adam. Andi first let it be understood, that, by 
his being made of earth and clay, a restraint was laid upon 
pride ; since nothing is more absurd than for creatures to glory 
in their excellence, who not only inhabit a cottage of clay, but 
who are themselves composed partly of dust and ashes. (e) But 
as God not only deigned to animate the earthen vessel, but 
chose to make it the residence of an immortal spirit, Adam 
might justly glory in so great an instance of the liberality of 
his Maker. 

Ii. ‘That man consists of soul and body, ought not to be 
controverted. By the “soul” I understand an immortal, yet 
created essence, which is the nobler part of him. Sometimes 
it is called a “spirit ;” for though, when these names are con- 
nectgd, they have a different signification, yet when “spirit ’’ is 
used separately, it means the same as ‘“soul;’’ as when Solo- 
mon, speaking of death, says that ‘then the spirit shall return 
unto God, who gave it.””(f/) And Christ commending his spirit 
to the F’ather, (g¢) and Stephen his to Christ, (2) intend no other 
than that, when the soul is liberated from the prison of the 
flesh, God is its perpetual keeper. Those who imagine that the 
soul is called a spirit, because it is a breath or faculty divinely 
infused into the body, but destitute of any essence, are proved 
to be in a gross error by the thing itself, and by the whole 
tenor of Scripture.. It is true, indeed, that, while men are im- 
moderately attached to the earth, they become stupid, and, 
being alienated from the Father of lights, are immersed in 
darkness, so that they consider not that they shall survive after 
death ; yet in the mean time, the light is not so entirely extin- 
guished by the darkness, but that they are affected with some 
sense of their immortality. Surely the conscience, which, dis- 
cerning between good and evil, answers to the judgment of 

(e) Gen. ii. 7; iii. 19, 23. (g) Luke xxiii. 46. 
(f) Eccles. xii. 7. (h) Acts vil. 59. 


172 INSTITUTES OF THE | [BooK L 


God, is an indubitable proof of an immortal spirit. For how 
could an affection or emotion, without any essence, penetrate to 
the tribunal of God, and inspire itself with terror on account 
of its guilt? For the body is not affected by a fear of spiritual 
punishment; that falls only on the soul; whence it follows, 
that it is possessed of an essence. Now, the very knowledge 


of God sufficiently proves the immortality of the soul, which . 


rises above the world, since an evanescent breath or inspiration 
could not arrive at the fountain of life. Lastly, the many noble 
faculties with which the human mind is adorned, and which 
loudly proclaim that something Divine is inscribed on it, are so 
many testimonies of its immortal essence. For the sense which 
the brutes have, extends not beyond the body, or at most not 
beyond the objects near it. But the agility of the human 
mind, looking through heaven and earth, and the secrets of 
nature, and comprehending in its intellect and memory all ages, 
digesting every thing in proper order, and concluding future 


events from those which are past, clearly demonstrates that 


there is concealed within man something distinct from the 
body. In our minds we form conceptions of the invisible God 
and of angels, to which the body is not at all competent. We 
apprehend what is right, just, and honest, which is concealed 
from the corporeal senses. 'The spirit, therefore, must be the 
seat of this intelligence. Even sleep itself, which, stupefying 
man, seems to divest him even of life, is no obscure proof of 
immortality ; since it not only suggests to us ideas of things 
which never happened, but also presages of future events. I 
briefly touch those things which even profane writers magnifi- 
cently éxtol in a more splendid and ornamented diction; but 
with the pious reader the simple mention of them will be suffi- 
cient. Now, unless the soul were something essentially distinct 
from the body, the Scripture would not inform us that we 
dwell in houses of clay, (7) and at death quit the tabernacle of 
the flesh ; (4) that we put off the corruptible, (2) to receive a 
reward at the last day, according to the respective conduct of 
each individual in the body. (m) For certainly these and 
similar passages, which often occur, not only manifestly dis- 
tinguish the soul from the body, but , by transferring to it the 
name of ‘‘man,’’ indicate that it is ‘the principal part of our 
nature. When Paul exhorts the faithful to cleanse themselves 
from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, (7) he points 
out two parts in which the defilement of sin resides. Peter 
also, when he called Christ the Shepherd and Bishop of souls, (0) 
would have spoken improperly, if there were no souls over 
whom he could exercise that office. Nor would there be any 


(7) Job iv. 19. (1) 2 Peter i. 13, 14. (n) 2 Cor. vii. 1. 
(k) 2 Cor. v. 4. (mt) 2.Cor. y. 10: (0) 1 Peter ii. 25. 


. 
—— 


cHap. xv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 173 


consistency in what he says concerning the eternal salvation of 
souls, or in his injunction to purify the souis, or in his assertion 
that fleshly lusts. war against the soul, () or in what the author 
of the Epistle to the Hebrews says, that pastors watch to give 
an account of our souls, (¢) unless souls had a proper essence. 
To the same purpose is the place where Paul “calls God for a 
record upon his soul,” (7) because it could not be amenable to 
God, if it were not capable of punishment; which is also 
more clearly expressed in the words of Christ, where he com- 
mands us to fear him, who, after having killed the body, is able 
to cast the soul into hell. (s) Where the author of the Epistle 
to the Hebrews distinguishes between the fathers of our flesh, 
and God, who is the only Father of spirits, (¢) he could not as- 
sert the essence or existence of the soul in more express terms. 
Besides, unless the soul survived after its liberation from the 
prison of the body, it was absurd for Christ to represent the 
soul of Lazarus as enjoying happiness in the bosom of Abra- 
ham, and the soul of the rich man as condemned to dreadful 
torments. (w) Paul confirms the same point, by informing us 
that we are absent from God as long as we dwell in the body, 
but that when absent from the body we are present with the © 
Lord. (v) Not to be too prolix on a subject of so little ob- 
scurity, I shall only add this from Luke, that it is reckoned 
among the errors of the Sadducees, that they believed not the 
existence of angels or of spirits. (w) 

Ill. A solid proof of this point may also be gathered from 
man being said to be created in the image of God.(z7) For 
though the glory of God is displayed in his external form, yet 
there is no doubt that the proper seat of his image is in the soul. 
I admit that external form, as it distmguishes us from brutes, 
also exalts us more nearly td God; nor will I too vehemently 
contend with any one who would understand, by the image of 
God, that 


6c while the mute creation downward bend 


Their sight, and to their earthly mother tend, 
Man took aloft, and with erected eyes 
Beholds his own hereditary skies.’ (y) 


Only let it be decided that the image of God, which appears or 
sparkles in these external characters, is spiritual. For Osiander, 
whose perverse ingenuity in futile notions is proved by his 
writings, extending the image of God promiscuously to the body 
as well as to the soul, confounds heaven and earth together. 
He says, that the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, fixed their 


(p) 1 Peter i. 9, 22; 1.11. (s) Matt. x. 28. Luke xii. 4,5. (v) 2 Cor. v. 6,6 

(q) Heb. xii. 17. (t) Heb. xii. 9. — (w) Acts xxiii. 8. 

(7) 2 Cor. i. 23. (u) Luke xvi. 22. (xz) Gen. i 27, 
(y) Ovid’s Metam. lib. }. Dryden’s Translation. 


174 INSTITUTES OF THE _[Boox 1. 


image in man, because, even if Adam had remained in his inte- 
srity, Christ would, nevertheless, have become man. ‘Thus, ac- 
cording to him, the body which had been destined for Christ 
was the exemplar and type of that corporeal figure which was 
then formed. But where will he find that Christ is the image 
of the Spirit? I grant, indeed, that the glory of the whole 
Deity shines in the person of the Mediator; but how shall the 
eternal Word be called the image of the Spirit, whom he pre- 
cedes in order? Lastly, it subverts the distinction between the 
Son and Spirit, if the former be denominated the image of the 
_atter. Besides, I could wish to be informed by him, how Christ, 
in the body which he has assumed, resembles the Spirit, and by 
what characters or lineaments his similitude is expressed. And 
since that speech, ‘Let us make man in our own image,” (z) 
belongs also to the person of the Son, it follows that he is the 
image of himself; which is altogether repugnant to reason. 
Moreover, if the notion of Osiander be received, man was formed 
only to the type or exemplar of the humanity of Christ ; and the 
idea from which Adam was taken was Christ, as about to be 
clothed in flesh; whereas the Scripture teaches, in a very dif- 


ferent sense, that man was “created in the image of God.” | 


There is more plausibility in the subtlety of those who main- 
tain that Adam was created in the image of God, because he 
was conformed to Christ, who is the only image of God. But 
this also is destitute of solidity. There is no small controversy 
concerning “image ” and “likeness ’’ among expositors who seek 
for a difference, whereas in reality there is none, between the 
two words; “likeness”? being only added by way of explana- 
tion. In the first place, we know that it is the custom of the 
Hebrews to use repetitions, in which they express one thing 
twice. In the next place, as to’the thing itself, there is no 
doubt but man is called the image of God, on account of his 
likeness to God. Hence it appears that those persons make 
themselves ridiculous who display more subtlety in criticising 
on these terms, whether they confine zelem, that is, ‘‘image,”’ 
to the substance of the soul, and demuth, that is, “‘likeness,’’ to 
its qualities, or whether they bring forward any different inter- 
pretation. Because, when God determined to create man in his 
own image, that expression being rather obscure, he repeats the 
same idea in this explanatory phrase, “after our likeness;” as 
though he had said that he was about to make man, in whom, 
as in an image, he would give a representation of himself by 
the characters of resemblance which he would impress upon him. 
Therefore Moses, a little after, reciting the same thing, intro- 
duces the image of God, but makes no mention of his likeness. 


The objection of Osiander is quite frivolous, that it is. not a 


(z) Gen. 1. 26. 


» 


PI 


CHAP. Xv. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. . Tio 


part of man, or the soul with its faculties, that is called the im- 
age of God, but the whole Adam, who received his name from 
the earth whence he was taken; it will be deemed frivolous, I 
say, by every rational reader. For when the whole man is 
called mortal, the soul is not therefore made subject to death ; 
nor, on the other hand, when man is called a rational animal, 
does reason or intelligence therefore belong to the body. 

Though the soul, therefore, is not the whole man, yet there is 
no absurdity in calling him the image of God with relation to 
the soul; although [ retain the principle which I have just laid 
down, that the image of God includes all the excellence in 
which the nature of man surpasses all the other species of ani- 
mals. ‘This term, therefore, denotes the integrity which Adam 
possessed, when he was endued with a right understanding, 
when he had affections regulated by reason, and all his senses 
governed in proper order, and when, in the excellency of his na- 
ture, he truly resembled the excellence of his Creator. And 
though the principal seat of the Divine image was in the mind 

_and heart, or in the _soul-and-its.faculties, yet there was no part 
of man, not even the body, which was not adorned with some 
rays of its glory. It is certain that the lineaments of the Divine 
glory are conspicuous in every part of the world; whence it 
may be concluded, that where the image of God is said to be in 
man, there is implied a tacit antithesis, which exalts man above 
all the other creatures, and as it were separates him from the 
vulgar herd. It is not to be denied that angels were created in 
the similitude of God, since our highest perfection will consist, 

according to the declaration of Christ, in being like them. (a) 
But it is not in vain that Moses celebrates the favour of God 
towards us by this peculiar title; especially as he compares 
man only to visible creatures. 

_IV. No complete definition of this image, however, appears 
yet to be given, unless it be more clearly specified in what fac- 
ulties man excels, and in what respects he ought to be ac- 
counted a mirror of the Divine glory. But that cannot be 
better known from any thing, than from the reparation of his 
corrupted nature. ‘There is no doubt that Adam, when he fell 
from his dignity, was by this defection alienated from God. 
Wherefore, although we allow that the Divine image was not 
utterly annihilated and effaced in him, yet it was so corrupted 
that whatever remains is but horrible deformity. And there- 
fore the beginning of our recovery and salvation is the restora- 
tion which we obtain through Christ, who on this account is 
called the second Adam; because he restores us to true and 
perfect integrity. For although Paul, opposing the quickening 
Spirit received by the faithful from Christ, to the living soul in 


(a) Matt. xxii. 30 


176 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book I 


which Adam was created, (b) celebrates the degree of grace 
displayed in regeneration as superior to that manifested ir 
creation, yet he contradicts not that other capital point, that 
this is the end of regeneration, that Christ may form us 
anew in the image of God. Therefore he elsewhere informs 
us, that ‘the new man is renewed in knowledge after the 
image of him that created him.” (¢) With which corresponds 
the following exhortation — “ Put on the new man, which after 
God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (d) Now, 
we may see what Paul comprehends in this renovation. In 
the first place, he mentions knowledge, and in the next place, 
sincere righteousness and holiness; whence we infer, that in 
the beginning the image of God was conspicuous in the light 
of the mind, in the rectitude of the heart, and in the soundness 
of all the parts of our nature. For though I grant that the 
forms of expression are synecdochical, signifying the whole 
by a part, yet this is an axiom which cannot be overturned, 
that what holds the principal place in the renovation of the 
Divine image, must also have held the same place in the erea- 
tion of it at first. To the same purpose is another passage of 
the Apostle, that “we, with open face beholding the glory of 
Christ, are changed into the same image.” (e) We see, now, 
how Christ is the most perfect image of God, to which being 
conformed, we are so restored that we bear the Divine image 
in true piety, righteousness, purity, and understanding. This 
position being established, the imagination of Osiander, about 
the figure of the body, immediately vanishes of itself. The 
passage where Paul calls the man “the image and glory of 
God,” (f ) to the exclusion of the woman from that degree of 
honour, appears from the context to be confined to political 
subordination. But that the image which has been mentioned 
comprehended whatever relates to spiritual and eternal life, has 
now, I think, been sufficiently proved. John confirms the 
same in other words, by asserting that “the life” which was 
from the beginning in the eternal Word of God, ‘“ was the light 
of men.” (g) For as he intended to praise the singular favour 
of God which exalts man above all the other animals; to sep- 
arate him from the common number, because he has attained 
no vulgar life, but a life connected with the light of intelli- 
gence and reason, —he at the same time shows how he was 
made after the image of God. Therefore, since the image of 
God is the uncorrupted excellence of human nature, which 
shone in Adam before his defection, but was afterwards so cor- 
rupted, and almost obliterated, that nothing remains from the 
ruin but what is confused, mutilated, and defiled, —it is now 


(b) 1 Cor. xv. 45. (d) Eph. iv. 24. (fF) 1 Cor. xi. 7. 
(c) Col. iii. 10. (a\ 2 Cor. iii. 18. (g) John i. 4. 


cHaP. xv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 177 


partly visible in the elect, inasmuch as they are regenerated by 
the Spirit, but it will obtain its full glory in heaven. But that 
we may know the parts of which it consists, it is necessary to 
treat of the faculties of the soul. For that speculation of Au- 
custine is far from being solid, that the soul is a mirror of the 
Trinity, because it contains understanding, will, and memory. 
Nor is there any probability in the opinion which places the 
similitude of God in the dominion committed to man; as 
though he resembled God only in this character, that he was 
constituted heir and possessor of all things, whereas it must 
properly be sought 7m him, not without him; it is an internal 
excellence of the soul. 

VY. But, before I proceed any further, it is necessary to com- 
bat the Manichzan error, which Servetus has attempted to 
revive and propagate in the present age. Because God is said 
to have breathed into man the breath of life, (A) they supposed 
that the soul was an emanation from the substance of God; as 
though some portion of the infinite Deity had been conveyed 
into man. But it may be easily and briefly shown how many 
shameful and gross absurdities are the necessary consequences 
of this diabolical error. For if the soul of man be an emana- 
tion from the essence of God, it will follow that the Divine 
nature is not only mutable and subject to passions, but also to 
ignorance, desires, and vices of every kind. Nothing is more 
inconstant than man, because his soul is agitated and variously 
distracted by contrary motions; he frequently mistakes through 
ignorance ; he is vanquished by some of the smallest tempta- 
tions; we know that the soul is the receptacle of every kind 
of impurity ; —all which we must ascribe to the Divine nature, 
if we believe the soul to be part of the essence of God, or a 
secret influx of the Deity. Who would not dread such a mon- 
strous tenet? It is a certain truth, quoted by Paul from Aratus, 
that ‘we are the offspring of God,’’ but in quality, not in sub- 
stance ; forasmuch as he has adorned us with Divine endow- 
ments. (7) But to divide the essence of the Creator, that every 
creature may possess a part of it, indicates extreme madness. 
It must therefore be concluded beyond all doubt, notwithstand- 
ing the Divine image is impressed on the souls of men, that 
they were no less created than the angels. And creation is 
not a transfusion, but an origination of existence from nothing. 
Nor, because the spirit is given by God, and returns to him on 
its departure from the body, is it immediately to be asserted, 
that it was plucked off like a branch from his essence. And 
on this point also Osiander, while he is elated with his own 
illusions, has involved himself in an impious error, not ac- 


(kh) Gen. ii. 7. (¢) Acts xvii. 28. 
VoL. I. * 23 é 


178 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK t. 


knowledging the image of God in man without his essential 
righteousness, as though God could not, by the inconceivable 
power of his Spirit, render us conformable to himself, unless 
Christ were to transfuse himself substantially into us. How- 
ever some persons may attempt to gloss over these delusions, 
they will never so far blind the eyes of sensible readers, as to 
prevent their perceiving that they savour of the error of the 
Manicheans. And where Paul treats of the restoration of this 
image, we may readily conclude from his words, that man was 
conformed to God not by an influx of his substance, but by 
the grace and power of his Spirit. For he says that, by be- 
holding the glory of Christ, we are transformed into the same 
image as by the Spirit of the Lord ; (4) who certainly operates 
in us not in such a manner as to render us consubstantial 
with God. 

VI. It would be folly to seek for a definition of the soul 
from the heathen philosophers, of whom Plato is almost the 
only one who has plainly asserted it to be an immortal sub- 
stance. Others indeed, the disciples of Socrates, hint at it, 
but with great doubts; no one clearly teaches that of which 
he was not persuaded himself. The sentiment of Plato, there- 
fore, is more correct, because he considers the image of God as 
being in the soul. The other sects so confine its powers and 
faculties to the present life, that they leave it nothing beyond 
the body. But we have before stated from the Scripture, that 
it is an incorporeal substance ; now we shall add, that although 
it Is not properly contained in any place, yet, being put into 
the body, it inhabits it as its dwelling, not only to animate all 
its parts, and render the organs fit and useful for their respec- 
tive operations, but also to hold the supremacy in the govern- 
ment of human life; and that not only in the concerns of the 
terrestrial life, but likewise to excite to the worship of God. 
Though this last point is not so evident in the state of corrup- 
tion, yet there remain some relics of it impressed even on our 
very vices. For whence proceeds the great concern of men 
about their reputation, but from shame? but whence proceeds 
shame, unless from a respect for virtue? The principle and 
cause of which is, that they understand themselves to have 
been born for the cultivation of righteousness; and -in which 
are included the seeds of religion. But as, without controversy, 
man was created to aspire to a heavenly life, so it is certain 
that the knowledge of it was impressed on his soul. And, in- 
deed, man would be deprived of the principal use of his under- 
standing, if he were ignorant of his felicity, the perfection of 
which consists in being united to God. Thus the chief opera- 


(k) 2 Cor. iii, 18. 


SHAP. xv. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 179 


tion of the soul is to aspire after it; and, therefore, the more a 
man studies to approach to God, the more he proves himself a 
rational creature. Some maintain that in man there are more 
souls than one, a sensitive and a rational one ; but notwithstand- 
ing some appearance of probability in what they adduce, yet, as 
there is nothing solid in their arguments, we must reject them, 
unless we are fond of ‘tormenting ourselves with frivolous and 
useless things. They say that there is a great repugnancy 
between the organic motions and the rational part of the soul ; 
as though reason were not also .at variance with itself, and 
some of its counsels were not in opposition to others, like hos- 
tile armies. But as this confusion proceeds from the depravity 
of nature, it affords no ground for concluding that there are 
two souls, because the faculties are not sufficiently harmonious 
with each other. But all curious discussion respecting the 
faculties themselves I leave to the philosophers; a simple 
definition will suffice us for the edification of piety. I confess, 
indeed, that the things which they teach are true, and not only 
entertaining to be known, but useful and well digested by 
them; nor do I prohibit those who are desirous of learning 
from the study of them. I admit, then, in the first place, that 
there are five senses, which Plato would rather call organs, by 
which all objects are conveyed into a common sensory, as into 
a general repository ; that next follows the fancy or imagina- 
tion, which discerns the objects apprehended by the common 
sensory ; next reason, to which belongs universal judgment ; 
lastly,*the understanding, which steadily and quietly contem- 
plates the objects revolved and considered by reason. And 
thus to the understanding, reason, and imagination, the three 
intellectual faculties of the soul, correspond also the three ap- 
petitive ones — the will, whose place it is to choose those things 
which the understanding and reason propose to it; the iras- 
cible faculty, which embraces the things offered to it by reason 


“and imagination; and the concupiscible faculty, which ap- 


prehends the objects presented by the imagination and sensa- 
tion. ‘Though these things are true, or at least probable, yet, 
since I fear that they will involve us in their obscurity rather 
than assist us, I think they ought to be omitted. If any one 
chooses to make a different distribution of the powers of the 
soul, so as to call one appetitive, which, though void of reason 


_in itself, obeys reason, if it be under the guidance of any other 


‘faculty; and to call another intellective, which is itself a par- 


taker of reason; I shall not much oppose it. Nor have | any 
wish to combat the sentiment of Aristotle, that there are three 
principles of action — sense, intellect, and appetite. But let us 
rather choose a division placed within the comprehension of 
all, and which certainly cannot be sought in the philosophers. 


180 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 1 


For when they wish to speak with the greatest simplicity. 
they divide the soul into appetite and intellect, and make both 


these twofold. ‘The latter, they say, is sometimes contempla- 
tive, being content merely with knowledge, and having no 
tendency to action, — which Cicero thinks is designated by the 


word ingenium, —and sometimes practical, variously influen- 
cing the will with the apprehension of good or evil. This di- 
vision comprehends the science of living in a just and virtuous 
manner. ‘The latter, that is, appetite, they divide into will and 
concupiscence ; they call it ‘will,’ whenever appetite obeys 
reason; but when, shaking off the yoke of reason, it runs into 
intemperance, they give it the name of ‘“ concupiscence.” 
Thus they imagine that man is always possessed of reason 
sufficient for the proper government of himself. 

VII. We are constrained to depart a little from this mode of 
instruction, because the philosophers, being ignorant of the cor- 
ruption of nature proceeding from the punishment of’ the fall, 
improperly confound two very different states of mankind. 
Let us, therefore, submit the following division — that the human 


soul has two faculties which relate to our present design, the - 


understanding and the will. Now, let it be the office of the 
understanding to discriminate between objects, as they shall 
respectively appear deserving of approbation or disapprobation ; 
but of the will, to choose and follow what the understanding 
shall have pronounced to be good; to abhor and avoid what it 
shall have condemned. Here let us not stay to discuss those 
subtleties of Aristotle, that the mind has no motion of: itself, 
but that it is moved by the choice, which he also calls the .ap- 
petitive intellect. Without perplexing ourselves with unneces- 
sary questions, it should be sufficient for us to know that the 
understanding is, as it were, the guide and governor of the soul ; 
that the will always respects its authority, and waits for its 
judgment in its desires. For which reason Aristotle himself 
truly observed, that avoidance and pursuit in the appetite, bear 
a resemblance to affirmation and negation in the mind. How 
certain the government of the understanding is in the direction 
of the will, we shall see in another part of this work. Here 
we only intend to show that no power can be found in the 
soul, which may not properly be referred to one or the other of 
those two members. But in this manner we comprehend the 
sense in the understanding, which some distinguish thus: seuise, 
they say, inclines to pleasure, whereas the understanding fol- 
lows what is good; that thence it happens that the appetite of 
sense becomes concupiscence and lust, and the affection of the 
understanding becomes will. But instead of the word “ appe- 
tite,” which they prefer, I use the word “ will,’’ which is more 
common. 


CHAP. xv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 181 


VIII. God has furnished the soul of man, therefore, with a 
mind capable of discerning good from evil, and just from un- 
just ; and of discovering, by the light of reason, what ought to 
be pursued or avoided ; whence the philosophers called this di. 
recting faculty ro jysyovmov, the principal or governing part. To 
this he has annexed the will, on which depends the choice. 
The primitive condition of man was ennobled with those em- 
inent faculties; he possessed reason, understanding, prudence, 
and judgment, not only for the government of his life on earth, 
but to enable him to ascend even to God and eternal felicity. 
To these was added choice, to direct the appetites, and regu- 
late all the organic motions; so that the will should be entirely 
conformed to the government of reason. In this integrity man 
was endued with free will, by which, if he had chesen, he 
might have obtained eternal life. For here it would be un- 
reasonable to introduce the question respecting the secret pre- 
destination of God, because we are’ not discussing what might 
possibly have happened or not, but what was the real nature of 
man. Adam, therefore, could have stood if he would, since he 
fell merely by his own will; but because his will was flexible 
to either side, and he was not endued with constancy to perse- 
vere, therefore he so easily fell. Yet his choice of good and 
evil was free; and not only so, but his mind and will were 
possessed of consummate rectitude, and all his organic parts 
were rightly disposed to obedience, till, destroying himself, he 
corrupted all his excellencies. Hence proceeded the darkness 
which overspread the minds of the philosophers, because they 
sought for a complete edifice among ruins, and for beautiful 
order in the midst of confusion. 'They held this principle, 
that man would notbe a rational animal, unless he were endued 
with a free choice of good or evil; they conceived also that 
otherwise all differénce between virtue and vice would be de- 
stroyed, unless man regulated his life according to his own in- 
clnation. ‘Thus far it had been well, if there had been no 
change in man, of which as they were ignorant, it is not to be 
wondered at if they confound heaven and earth together. But 
those who profess themselves to be disciples of Christ, and yet 
seek tor free will in man, now lost and overwhelmed in spiritual 
ruin, in striking out a middle path between the opinions of the 
philosophers and the doctrine of heaven, are evidently deceived, 
so that they touch neither heaven nor earth. But these things 
will be better introduced in the proper place. At present be it 
only remembered, that man, at-his first creation, was very differ- 
ent from all his posterity, who, deriving their original from him 
in his corrupted state, have contracted an hereditary defilement. 
For all the parts of his soul were formed with the utmost rec- 
titude ; he enjoyed soundness of mind, and a will free to the 


‘182 INSTITUTES OF THE _ [BooK 1. 


choice of good. If any object, that he was placed in a dan- 
gerous situation on account of the imbecility of this faculty, | 
reply, that the station in which he was placed was sufficient to 
deprive him of all excuse. For it would have been unreason- 
able that God should be confined to this condition, to make 
man so as to be altogether incapable either of choosing or of 
committing any sin. It is true that such a nature would have 
been more excellent ; but to expostulate with God as though he 
had been under any obligation to bestow this upon man, were 
unreasonable and unjust in the extreme; since it was at his 
choice to bestow as little as he pleased. But why he did not 
sustain him with the power of perseverance, remains concealed 
in his mind; but it is our duty to restrain our investigations 
within the limits of sobriety. He had received the power, in- 
deed, if he chose to exert it ; but he had not the will to use that 
power; for the consequence of this will would have been per- 
severance. Yet there is ho excuse for him; he received so 
much, that he was the voluntary procurer of his own destruc- 
tion; but God was under no necessity to give him any other 
than an indifferent and mutable will, that from his fall he might 
educe matter for his own glory. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


GOD’S PRESERVATION AND SUPPORT OF THE WORLD BY HIS POWER, 
AND HIS GOVERNMENT OF EVERY PART OF IT BY HIS PROVI- 
DENCE. 

. a 

To represent God as a Creator only for a moment, who en- 
tirely finished all his work at once, were frigid and jejune; 
and in this it behoves us especially to differ from the heathen, 
that the presence of the Divine power may appear to us no less 
in the perpetual state of the world than in its first origin. For 
although the minds even of impious men, by the mere con- 
templation of earth and heaven, are constrained to rise to the 

Creator, yet faith has a way peculiar to itself to assign to God 

the whole praise of creation. 'To which purpose is that asser- 

tion of an Apostle before cited, that it is only “through faith 
that we understand the worlds were framed by the word of 

God ;’’(2) because, unless we proceed to his providence, we 

have no correct conception of the meaning of this article, ‘that 


(1) Hebrews xi. 3. 


CHAP. XVI. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. | 183 


God is the Creator ;”’ however we may appear to comprehend it 
in our minds, and to confess it with our tongues. ‘The carnal 
sense, when it has once viewed the power of God in the crea- 
tion, stops there; and when it proceeds the furthest, it only 
examines and considers the wisdom, and power, and goodness, 
of the Author in producing such a work, which spontaneously 
present themselves to the view even of those who are unwill- 
ing to observe them. In the next place, it conceives of some 
general operation of God in preserving and governing it, on 
which the power of motion depends. Lastly, it supposes that 
the vigour originally infused by God into all things is sufficient 
for their sustentation. But faith ought to penetrate further. 
When it has learned that he is the Creator of all things, it 
should immediately conclude that he is also their perpetual 
governor and preserver; and that not by a certain universal 
motion, actuating the whole machine of the world, and all its 
respective parts, but by @ particular providence sustaining, 
nourishing, and providing for every thing which he has 
made.(m) ‘Thus David, having briefly premised that the 
world was made by God, immediately descends to the continual 
course of his providence: ‘‘ By the word of the Lord were the 
heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his 
mouth.” (7) He afterwards adds, ‘‘'The Lord beholdeth all 
the sons of men;”’ (0) and subjoins more to the same purpose. 
For though all men argue not so skilfully, yet, since it would 
not be credible that God was concerned about human affairs, 
if he were not the Maker of the world, and no one seriously 
believes that the world was made by God, who is not per- 
suaded that he takes care of his own works, it is not without 
reason that David conducts us by a most excellent series from 
one to the other. In general, indeed, both philosophers teach, 
and the minds of men conceive, that all the parts of the world 
are quickened by the secret inspiration of God. But they go 
not so far as David, who is followed by all the pious, when he 
says, “‘ These all wait upon thee ; that thou mayest give them 
their meat in due season. That thou givest them, they 
gather; thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good. 
Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled; thou takest away 
their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest 
forth thy Spirit, they are created; and thou renewest the face 
of the earth.” (p) 'Though they subscribe to the assertion of 
Paul, that in God ‘“ we live, and move, and have our being,” (q} 
yet they are very far from a serious sense of his favour, 
celebrated by the Apostle ; because they have no apprehension 


(m) Matt. vi. 26; x. 29. (n) Psalm xxxiii. 6. (0) Psalm xxxin. 13. 
(p) Psalm civ. 27—30. (q) Acts xvii. 28. 


184 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1. 


of the special care of God, from which alone his aah 
favour is\ known. 

Il. For the clearer manifestation of this difference, it must 
be observed that the providence of God, as it is taught in 
Scripture, is opposed to fortune and fortuitous accidents. Now, 
since it has been the common persuasion in all ages, and is also 
in the present day almost the universal opinion, ‘that all things 
happen fortuitously, it is certain that every correct sentiment 
concerning providence is not only obscured, but almost buried 
in oblivion by this erroneous notion. If any one falls into the 
hands of robbers, or meets with wild beasts; if by a sudden 
storm he is shipwrecked on the ocean ; if he is killed by the 
fall of a house or a tree; if another, wandering through deserts, 
finds relief for his penury, or, after having been tossed about 
by the waves, reaches the port, and escapes, as it were, but a 
hair’s-breadth from death, — carnal reason will ascribe all these 
occurrences, both prosperous and *adverse, to fortune. But 
whoever has been taught from the mouth of Christ, that the 
hairs of his head are all numbered, (7) will seek further for a 
cause, and conclude that all events are governed by the seeret 
counsel of God. And respecting things inanimate, it must be 
admitted, that, though they are all naturally endued with their 
peculiar properties, yet they exert not their power, any further 
than as they are directed by the present hand of God. They 
are, therefore, no other than instruments into which God in- 
fuses as much efficacy as he pleases, bending and turnings them 
to any actions, according to his will. ‘There is no power 
among all the creatures more wonderful or illustrious, than 
that of the sun. For, besides his illumination of the whole 
world by his splendour, how astonishing it is that he cherish:s 
and enlivens all animals with his heat ; with his rays inspirs 
fecundity into the earth; from the seeds, genially warmed in 
her bosom, produces a green herbage, which, being supported 
by fresh nourishment, he increases and strengthens till it rises 
into stalks; feeds them with perpetual: exhalations, till they 
grow into blossoms, and from blossoms to fruit, which he then 
by his influences brings to maturity; that trees, likewise, and 
vines, by his genial warmth, first put forth leaves, then blos- 
soms, and from the blossoms produce their fruit! But the 
Lord, to reserve the praise of all these things entirely to him- 
self, was pleased that the light should exist, and the earth 
abound in every kind of herbs and fruits, before he created the 
sun. A pious man, therefore, will not make the sun either a 
principal or necessary cause of those things which existed be- 
fore the creation of the sun, but only an instrument which God 


(r) Matt. x. 30. 


CHAP. XVI. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 185 


uses, because it is his pleasure so to do; whereas he would 
find no more difficulty in acting by himself without that 
luminary. Lastly, as we read that the sun remained in one 
situation for two days at the prayer of Joshua, (s) and that his 
shadow made a retrograde motion of ten degrees for the sake 
of king Hezekiah, (t) God has declared by these few miracles, 
that the daily rising and setting of the sun is not from a blind 
instinct of nature, but that he himself governs his course, to 
renew the memory of his paternal favour towards us. Nothing 
is more natural than the succession of spring to winter, of 
summer to spring, and of autumn to summer. But there is 
so great a diversity and inequality discovered in this series, 
that it is obvious that every year, month, and day, is governed 
by a new and particular providence of God. 

III. And, indeed, God asserts his possession of omnipotence, 
and claims our acknowledgment of this attribute; not such as 
is imagined by sophists, vain, idle, and almost asleep, but vigi- 
lant, efficacious, operative, and engaged in continual action ; 
not a mere general principle of confused motion, as if he should 
command a river to flow through the channels once made for it, 
but a power constantly exerted on every distinct and particular 
‘movement. For he is accounted omnipotent, not because he is 
able to act, yet sits down in idleness, vr continues by a general 
instinct the order of nature originally appointed by him; but 
because he governs heaven and earth by his providence, and 
regulates all things in such a manner that nothing happens but 
according to his counsel. For when it is said in the Psalms, 
that he does whatsoever he pleases, (v) it denotes his certain 
and deliberate will. For it would be quite insipid to expound 
the words of the Prophet in the philosophical manner, that God 
is the prime agent, because he is the principle and cause of all 
motion; whereas the faithful should rather encourage them- 
selves in adversity with this consolation, that they suffer no af- 
fliction, but by the ordination and command of God, because 
they are under his hand. But if the government of God be 
thus extended to all his works, it is a puerile cavil to limit it 
to the influence, and course of nature. And they not only de- 
fraud God of his glory, but themselves of a very useful doctrine, 
who confine the Divine providence within such narrow bounds, 
as though he permitted all things to proceed in an uncontrolled 
course, according to a perpetual law of nature; for nothing 
would exceed the misery of man, if he were exposed to all the 
motions of the heaven, air, earth, and waters. Besides, this 
notion would shamefully diminish the singular goodness of God 
towards every individual. David exclaims, that infants yet 


(s) Joshua x 13. (t) 2 Kings xx. 11. (v) Psalm exv. 3. 
VOL. I. 24 | 


186. INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1. 


hanging on the breasts of their mothers are sufficiently elo- 
quent to celebrate the glory of God;(w) because, as soon as 
they are born, they find aliment prepared for them by his heav- 
enly care. ‘This, indeed, is generally true; yet it cannot escape 
the observation of our eyes and senses, being evidently proved 
by experience, that some mothers have breasts full and copious, 
but others almost dry; as it pleases God to provide more lib- 
erally for one, but more sparingly for another. But they who 
ascribe just praise to the Divine omnipotence, receive from this 
a double advantage. In the first place, he must have ample 
ability to bless them, who possesses heaven and earth, and 
whose will all the creatures regard so as to devote themselves 
to his service. And, secondly, they may securely repose in his 
protection, to whose will are subject all those evils which can 
be feared from any quarter ; by whose power Satan is restrained, 
with all his furies, and all his machinations; on whose will de- 
pends all that is inimical to our safety; nor is there any thing 
else by which those immoderate and superstitious fears, which 
we frequently feel on the sight of dangers, can be corrected or 
appeased. We are superstitiously timid, I say, if, whenever 
creatures menace or terrify us, we are frightened, as though 
they had of themselves the power to hurt ‘us, or could fortui- © 
tously injure us; or as if against their injuries God were unable 
to afford us sufficient aid. For example, the Prophet forbids 
the children of God to fear the stars and signs of heaven, (x) as 
is the custom of unbelievers. He certainly condemns not every 
kind of fear. But when infidels transfer the government of the 
world from God to the stars, pretending that their happiness or 
misery depends on the decrees and presages of the stars, and not 
on the will of God, the consequence is, that their fear is with- 
drawn from him, whom alone they ought to regard, and is 
placed on stars and comets. Whoever, then, desires to avoid this 
infidelity, let him constantly remember, that in the creatures 
there is no erratic power, or action, or motion; but that they are 
so governed by the secret counsel of God, that nothing can hap- 
pen but what is subject to his knowledge, and decreed by his will. 

IV. Furst, then, let the readers know that what is called 
providence describes God, not as idly beholding from heaven 
the transactions which happen in the world, but as holding the 
heim of the universe, and regulating all events. 'Thus it be- 
longs no less to his hands than to his eyes. When Abraham 
said to his son, ‘God will provide,” (y) he intended not only to 
assert his prescience of a future event, but to leave the care of a 
thing unknown to the will of him who frequently puts an end 
to circumstances of perplexity and confusion. Whence it fol- 


(w) Psalm viii. 2. (x) Jer. x. 2. (y) Gen. xxi. 8. - 


CHAP. XVI. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 187 


lows, that providence consists in action; for it is ignorant tri- 
fling to talk of mere prescience. Not quite so gross is the error 
of those who attribute to God a government, as I have ob- 
served, of a confused and promiscuous kind; acknowledging 
that God revolves and impels the machine of the world, with 
all its parts, by a general motion, without peculiarly directing 
the action of each individual creature. Yet even this error is 
not to be tolerated. For they maintain that this providence, 
which they call universal, is no impediment either to all the 
creatures being actuated contingently, or to man turning him- 
self hither or thither at the free choice of his own will. And 
they make the following partition between God and man; that 
God by his power inspires him with motions, enabling him to 
act according to the tendency of the nature with which he is 
endued; but that man governs his actions by his own volun- 
tary choice. In short, they conceive, that the world, human 
affairs, and men themselves, are governed by the power of God, 
but not by his appointment. I speak not of the Epicureans, 
who have always infested the world, who dream of a god ab- 
sorbed in sloth and inactivity ; and of others no less erroneous, 
who formerly pretended that the dominion of God extended 
over the middle region of the air, but that he left inferior things 
to fortune; since the mute creatures themselves sufficiently 
exclaim against such evident stupidity. My present design is 
to refute that opinion, which has almost generally prevailed, 
which, conceding to God a sort of blind and uncertain motion, 
deprives him of the principal thing, which is his directing and 
disposing, by his incomprehensible wisdom, all things to their 
proper end; and thus, robbing God of the government of the 
world, it makes him the ruler of it in name only, and not in 
reality. For, pray, what is governing, but presiding in such a 
manner, as to rule, by fixed decrees, those over whom you pre- 
side? Yet I reject not altogether what they assert concern- 
ing universal providence, provided they, on their part ad- 
mit that God governs the world, not merely because he pre- 
serves the order of nature fixed by himself, but because he ex- 
ercises a peculiar care over every one of his works. It is true 
that all things are actuated by a secret instinct of nature, as 
though they obeyed the eternal command of God, and that 
what God has once appointed, appears to proceed from volun- 
tary inclination in the creatures. And to this may be referred 
the declaration of Christ, that his Father and himself had al- 
ways been working, even from the beginning ;(z) and the as- 
sertion of Paul, that ‘in him we live, and move, and have our 
being ;”’ (a) and also what is observed by the author of the 


(z) John y. 17. (a) Acts xvii. 28. 


188 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK 1. 


Epistle to the Hebrews, with a design to prove the Divinity 
of Christ, that all things are sustained by the word of his 
power. (b) But they act very improperly in concealing and ob- 
scuring, by this pretext, the doctrine of a particular providence, 
which is asserted in such plain and clear testimonies of Scrip- 
ture, that it is surprising how any one could entertain a doubt. 
concerning it. And, certainly, they who conceal it with this 
veil which I have mentioned, are obliged to correct themselves 
by adding, that many things ‘happen through the peculiar care 
of God; but this they erroneously restrict to some particular 
acts. Wherefore we have to prove, that God attends to the 
government of particular events, and that they all proceed from 
his determinate counsel, in such a manner that there can be no 
such thing as fortuitous contingence. 

V. If we grant that the principle of motion originates from 
God, but that all things are spontaneously or accidentally carried 
whither the bias of nature impels them, the mutual vicissitudes 
of day and night, of winter and summer, will be the work of 
God, inasmuch as he has distributed to each its respective 
parts, and prescribed to them a certain law; that is, this would 
be the case if with even tenor they always observed the same 
measure, days succeeding to nights, months to months, and 
years to years. But sometimes excessive heats and drought 
parch and burn the fruits of the earth ; sometimes unseason- 
able rains injure the crops of corn, and sudden calamities 
are occasioned by showers of hail and storms: this will 
not be the work of God; unless, perhaps, as either clouds or 
serene weather, or cold or heat, derive their origin from the 
opposition of the stars and other natural causes. But this re- 
presentation leaves no room for God to display or exercise his 
paternal favour, or his judgments. If they say that God is 
sufficiently beneficent to man, because he infuses into heaven 
and earth an ordinary power, by which they supply him with 
food, it is a very flimsy and profane notion; as though the fe- 
cundity of one year were not the singular benediction of God, 
and as though penury and famine were not his malediction and 
vengeance. But as it would be tedious to collect all the reasons 
for rejecting this error, let us be content with the authority of 
God himself. In the law and in the prophets he frequently de- 
clares, that whenever he moistens the earth with dew or with 
rain, he affords a testimony of his favour ; and that, on the con- 
trary, when, at his command, heaven becomes hard as iron 
when the crops of corn are blasted and otherwise destroyed, 
and when showers of hail and storms molest the fields, he gives 
a proof of his certain and special vengeance. If we believe these 
things, it is certain that not a drop of rain falls but at the ex- 


(b) Heb: i. 3. 


CHAP. XVI. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 189 


press command of God. David indeed praises the general pro- 
vidence of God, because “he giveth food te the young ravens 
which cry;”’(c) but when God himself threatens animals with 
famine, does he not plainly declare, that he feeds all living 
creatures, sometimes with a smaller allowance, sometimes 
with a larger, as he pleases? It is puerile, as I have already ob- 
served, to restrain this to particular acts; whereas Christ says, 
without any exception, that not a sparrow of the least value 
falls to the ground without the will of the Father.(d) Cer- 
tainly, if the flight of birds be directed by the unerring coun- 
sel of God, we must be constrained to confess with the Prophet, 
that, though ‘“‘he dwelleth on high,” yet ‘‘he humbleth himself 
to behold the things which are in heaven and in the earth.” (e) 

VI. But as we know that the world was made chiefly for 
the sake of mankind, we must also observe this end in the 
government of it. ‘The Prophet Jeremiah exclaims, ‘I know 
that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that 
walketh to direct his steps.’! (f) And Solomon: ‘ Man’s 
goings are of the Lord: how can a man then understand his 
own way?” (g) Now, let them say that man is actuated by 
God according to the bias of his nature, but that he directs 
that influence according to his own pleasure. If this could be 
asserted with truth, man would have the free choice of his 
own ways. That, perhaps, they will deny, because he can do 
nothing independently of the power of God. But since it is 
evident that both the Prophet and Solomon ascribe to God 
choice and appointment, as well as power, this by no means 
extricates them from the difficulty. But Solomon, in another 
place, beautifully reproves this temerity of men, who predeter- 
mine on an end for themselves, without regard to God, as 
though they were not led by his ‘hand : ‘The preparation of 
the heart in man,” says he, ‘‘and the answer of the tongue, is 
from the Lord. ”(h) It is, indeed, a ridiculous madness for 
miserable men to resolve on undertaking any work independ- 
ently of God, whilst they cannot even speak a word but 
what he chooses. Moreover, the Scripture, more fully to ex- 
press that nothing is transacted in the world but according to 
his destination, shows that those things are subject to him 
which appear most fortuitous. For what would you be more 
ready to attribute to chance, than when a limb broken off from 
a tree kills a passing traveller? But very different is the de- 
cision of the Lord, who acknowledges that he has delivered 
him into the hand of the slayer.(z) Who, likewise, does not 
leave lots to the blindness of fortune? Yet the Lord leaves 


(c) Psalm exlvii.9 (e) Psalm exiii. 5,6. (g) Prov. xx. 24. (¢) Exod. xxi. 13. 
(d) Matt. x. 29, (f.) Jer. x:23. 7) Proy. xvi. 1. 


190 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 2. 


them not, but claims the disposal of them himself. He teaches 
us that it is not by any power of their own that lots are cast 
into the lap(&) and drawn out; but the only thing which 
could be ascribed to chance, he declares to belong to himself. 
To the same purpose is another passage from Solomon: “ The 
poor and the deceitful man meet together : the Lord enlighteneth 
the eyes of them both.” (2) For although the poor and the rich 
are blended together in the world, yet, as their respective con- 
ditions are assigned to them by Divine appointment, he sug- 
gests that God, who enlightens all, is not blind, and thus ex- 
horts the poor to patience ; because those who are discontented 
with their lot, are endeavouring to shake off the burden im- 
posed on them by God. Thus also another Prophet rebukes 
profane persons, who attribute it to human industry, or to for- 
tune, that some men remain in obscurity, and others rise to 
honours: ‘ Promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from 
the west, nor from the south. But God is the Judge; he 
putteth down one, and setteth up another.” (m) Since God 
cannot divest himself of the office of a judge, hence he rea- 
sons, that it is from the secret counsel of God, that some rise 
to promotion, and others remain in contempt. 

- VII. Moreover, particular events are in general proofs of the 
special providence of God. God raised in the desert a south 
wind, to convey to the people a large flock of birds. (7) When 
he would have Jonah thrown into the sea, he sent forth a wind 
to raise a tempest.(o0) It will be said by them who suppose 
God not to hold the helm of the world, that this was a devia- 
tion from the common course of things. But the conclusion 
which I deduce from it is, that no wind ever rises or blows 
but by the special command of God. For otherwise it would 
not be true that he makes the winds his messengers, and a 
flame of fire his ministers, that he makes the clouds his 
chariot, and rides on the wings of the wind,(p) unless he 
directed at his pleasure the course both of the clouds and of 
the winds, and displayed in them the singular presence of his 
power. ‘Thus also we are elsewhere taught, that, whenever 
the sea is blown into a tempest by the winds, those commo- 
tions prove the special presence of God. ‘‘ He commandeth 
and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves” of 
the sea. ‘Then he maketh the storm a calm, so that the 
waves thereof are still ;”’(q) as in another place he proclaims, 
that he scourged the people with parching winds: (r) ‘Thus, 
whilst men are naturally endued with a power of generation, 
yet God will have it acknowledged as the effect of his special 


(A) Prov. xvi. 33. (n) Exod. xvi. 13. Num. xi. 31. (q) Psalm evil. 25, 29. 
(l) Prov. xxix. 13. (0) Jonah i. 4. (r) Amos iv. 9. Hag: 
(m) Psalm Ixxv. 6,7. (p) Psalm civ. 3, 4. gai i. 6—Il1. 


CHAP. XVI. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 19] 


favour, that he leaves some without any posterity, and bestows 
children on others; for “the fruit of the womb is his re- 
ward.” (s) Therefore Jacob said to his wife, ‘‘Am I in God’s 
stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb ? ”’ (¢) 
But to conclude; there is nothing more common in nature, 
than for us to be nourished with bread. But the Spirit de- 
clares, not only that the produce of the earth is the special 
gift of God, but that men do not live by bread alone; (v) be- 
cause they are supported not by the abundance of their food, 
but by the secret benediction of God; as, on the contrary, he 
threatens that he will break “the stay of bread.” (w) Nor, 
indeed, could we otherwise seriously offer a prayer for daily 
bread, if God did not supply us with food from his fatherly 
hand. The Prophet, therefore, to convince the faithful that in 
feeding them God acts the pat of an excellent father of a 
family, informs us, that he “giveth food to all flesh.” (2) 
Lastly, when we hear, on the one hand, that ‘“ the eyes of the 
Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto thei 
ery,” and, on the other, that ‘“‘ the face of the Lord is against 
them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from 
the earth,’ (y) we may be assured that all creatures, above 
and below, are ready for his service, that he may apply them 
to any use that he pleases. Hence we conclude, not only that 
there is a general providence of God over the creatures, to con- 
tinue the order of nature, but that, by his wonderful counsel, 
they are all directed to some specific and proper end. 

VIII. Those who wish to bring an odium on this doctrine, 
calumniate it as the same with the opinion of the Stoics con- 
cerning fate, with which Augustine also was formerly re- 
proached. ‘Though we are averse to all contentions about 
words, yet we admit not the term fate; both because it is of 
that novel and profane kind which Paul teaches us to avoid, 
and because they endeavour to load the truth of God with the 
odium attached to it. But that dogma is falsely and maliciously 
charged upon us. For we do not, with the Stoics, imagine a 
necessity arising from a perpetual concatenation and intricate 
series of causes, contained in nature; but we make God the 
Arbiter and Governor of all things, who, in his own wisdom, 
has, from the remotest eternity, decreed what he .would do, 
and now, by his own power, executes what he has decreed. 
Whence -we assert, that not only the heaven and the earth, and 
inanimate creatures, but also the deliberations and volitions of 
men, are so governed by his providence, as to be directed to 
the end appointed by it. What then? you will say ; does 


(s) Psalm cxxvii. 3. (v) Deut. viii. 3. (z) Psalm cxxxvi. 25. 
(t) Gen xxx. 2. (w) Isaiah iii. 1. - (y) Psalm xxxiv. 15, 16. 


192 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 1. 


nothing happen fortuitously or contingently ? I answer, that 
it was truly observed by Basil the Great, that fortune and 
chance are words of the heathen, with the signification of 
which the minds of the pious ought not to be occupied. For 
if all success be the benediction of God, and calamity and 
adversity his malediction, there is no room left in human 
affairs for fortune or chance. And we should attend to this 
declaration of Augustine: ‘I am not pleased with myself,” 
says he, “ for having, in my treatises against the Academics, 
so frequently mentioned fortune, although I have not intended 
by that word any goddess, but a fortuitous occurrence of ex- 
ternal things, either good or evil. Hence also such words, 
the use of which no religion prohibits, as perhaps, perchance, 
peradventure, which, nevertheless, must be entirely referred to 
the Divine providence. And on this I have not been silent, 
remarking that perhaps what is commonly termed fortune is 
regulated by a secret order, and that what we call chance is 
only that, with the reason and cause of which we are not ac- 
quainted. ‘l’hus, indeed, [have expressed myself; but I repent 
of having mentioned fortune in this manner, since I see that 
men are habituated to a very sinful custom : when they ought 
to say, ‘ This was the will of God,’ they say, ‘This was the 
will of Fortune.’’”’ Finally, he every where maintains, that 
if any thing be left to fortune, the world revolves at random. 
And though he elsewhere decides, that all things are conducted 
partly by the free will of man, partly by the providence of 
God, yet he just after shows that men are subject to it and 
governed by it, assumirg as a principle that nothing could be 
more absurd, than for any thing to happen independently of the 
ordination of God; because it would happen at random. By 
this reasoning he excludes also any contingence dependent on 
the human will; and immediately after more expressly asserts 
that we ought not to inquire for any cause of the will of God. 
But in what sense permission ought to be understood, when- 
ever it is mentioned by him, will appear from one passage ; 
where he proves that the will of God is the supreme and first 
cause of all things, because nothing happens but by his com- 
mand or permission. He certainly does:not suppose God to 
remain an.idle spectator, determining to permit any thing; 
there is an intervention of actual volition, if I may be allowed 
the expression, which otherwise could never be considered as 
a cause. 3 

IX. Yet, since the dulness of our minds is very much below 
the sublimity of the Divine providence, let us endeavour tc 
assist them by adistinction. I say, then, that, notwithstanding 
the ordination of all things by the certain purpose and direction 
of God, yet to us they are fortuitous: not that we suppose 


CHAP. XvI.| CHRISTIAN RELIGION. : 594 


fortune holds any dominion over the world and mankind, and 
whirls about all things at random, for such folly ought to be 
far from the breast of a Christian; but because the order, 
reason, end, and necessity of events are chiefly concealed in the 
purpose of God, and not comprehended by the mind of man, 
those things are in some measure fortuitous, which must cer- 
tainly happen according to the Divine will. For they present 
no other appearance, whether they are considered in their own 
nature, or are estimated according to our knowledge and judg- 
ment. Let us suppose, for example, that a merchant, having 
entered a wood in the company of honest men, imprudently 
wanders from his companions, and, pursuing a wrong course, 
falls into the hands of robbers, and is murdered. His death 
was not only foreseen by God, but also decreed by him. For 
it is said, not that he has foreseen to what limits the life of 
every man would extend, but that he “ hath appoiuted bounds 
which he cannot pass.” (z) Yet, as far as our minds are 
capable of comprehending, all these circumstances appear for- 
tuitous. What opinion shall a Christian form on this case? 
He will consider all the circumstances of such a death as in their 
nature fortuitous ; yet he will not doubt that the providence of 
God presided, and directed fortune to that end. 'The same rea- 
soning will apply to future contingencies. All future things 
being uncertain to us, we hold them in suspense, as though they 
might happen either one way or another. Yet this remains a 
fixed principle in our hearts, that there will be no event which 
God has not ordained. In this sense the word chance is fre- 
quently repeated in the book of Ecclesiastes; because, on the 
first view, men penetrate not to the first cause, which lies 
deeply concealed. And yet the doctrine of the Scripture re 
specting the secret providence of God, has never been so far ob- 
literated from the hearts of men, but that some sparks of it 
always shone in the darkness. ‘Thus the Philistine sorcerers, 
though they fluctuated in uncertainty, ascribed adverse accidents 
partly to God, partly to fortune. “ If the ark,’’ say they, ‘‘ goeth 
up by that way, we shall know that God hath done us this great 
evil ; but if not, it wasa chance that happened to us.” (a) They 
betrayed great folly, indeed, after having been deceived by 
divination, to have recourse to fortune ; yet at the same time, 
we see them restrained, so that they cannot dare to suppose 
the affliction which had befallen them was fortuitous. But 
how God, by the reins of his providence, directs all events 
according to his own pleasure, will appear by an eminent 
example. At the very same instant of time when David had 
been overtaken in the wilderness of Maon, behold, the Philis- 


(z) Job xiv. 5. (a) 1 Sam. vi. 9. 
VOL. 1. 25 ; 


14: INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 4 


tines made an irruption into the land, and Saul was compelled 
to depart. If God, consulting the safety of his servant, laid 
this impediment in the way of Saul, then, surely, though the 
Philistines might have taken up arms suddenly, and contrary 
to human expectation, yet we will not say that this happened 
by chance; but what to us seems a contingency, faith will 
acknowledge to have been a secret impulse of God. It is not 
always, indeed, that there appears a similar reason ; but it should — 
be considered as indubitably certain, that all the revolutions 
visible in the world proceed from the secret exertion of the 
Divine power. What God decrees, must necessarily come to 
pass; yet it is not by absolute or natural necessity. We find 
a familiar example in respect to the bones of Christ. Since he 
possessed a body like ours, no reasonable man will deny that 
his bones were capable of being broken; yet that they should 
be broken was impossible. Hence, again, we perceive that the 
distinctions of relative and absolute necessity, as well as neces- 
sity of consequent and of consequence, were not without rea- 
son invented in the schools; since God made the bones of 
his Son capable of being broken, which, however, he had ex- 
empted from being actually broken, and thus prevented, by 
the necessity of his purpose, what might naturally have come 
to pass. 


CHAPTER XVII. 


THE PROPER APPLICATION OF THIS DOCTRINE TO ‘RENDER IT 
USEFUL TO US. 


As the minds of men are prone to vain subtleties, there is 
the greatest danger that those who know not the right use of 
this doctrine will embarrass themselves with intricate perplexi- 
ties. It will therefore be necessary to touch in a brief manner 
on the end and design of the Scripture doctrine of the Divine 
ordination of all things. And here let it be remarked, in the 
first place, that the providence of God is to be considered as 
well in regard to futurity, as in reference to that which is past; 
secondly, that it governs all things in such a manner as to op- 
erate sometimes by the intervention of means, sometimes with- 
out means, and sometimes in opposition to all means; lastly, 
that it tends to show the care of God for the whole human 
race, and especially his vigilance in the government of the 
Church, which he favours with more particular attention. It 
must also be observed, that, although the paternal favour and 
beneficence of God, or the severity of his justice, is frequently 


CHAP, Xvit.|_ CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 195 


conspicuous in the whole course of his providence, yet some. 
times the causes of events are concealed, so that a suspicion in- 
trudes itself, that the revolutions of human affairs are conducted 
by the blind impetuosity of fortune; or the flesh solicits us to 
murmur, as though God amused himself with tossing men 
about like tennis-balls. It is true, indeed, if we were ready to 
learn with quiet and sober minds, that the final issue suf- 
ficiently proves the counsels of God to be directed by the best of 
reasons; that he designs either to teach his people the exercise 
of patience, or to correct their corrupt affections and subdue 
the licentiousness of their appetites, or to constrain them to the 
practice of self-denial, or to arouse them from their indolence ; 
and, on the other hand, to abase the proud, to disappoint the 
cunning of the wicked, and to confound their machinations. 
Yet, however the causes may be concealed from us, or escape 
our observation, we must admit it as a certain truth, that they 
are hidden with him; and must therefore exclaim with David, 
‘Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou 
hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they can- 
not be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and 
speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.” (b) For, 
though our miseries ought always to remind us of our sins, 
that the punishment itself may urge us to repentance, yet we 
see that Christ ascribes more sovereignty to the secret purpose 
of the Father in afflicting men, than to require him to punish 
every individual according to his demerits. For concerning 
him who was born blind, he says, ‘ Neither hath this man 
sinned, nor his parents; but that the works of God should be 
made munifest in him.’’(c) For here sense murmurs, when 
calamity precedes the very birth, as though it were a detraction 
from the Divine clemency thus to afflict the innocent. But 
Christ declares that the glory of his Father is manifested in 
this instance, provided our eyes are clear to behold it. But we 
must proceed with modesty, cautious that we call not God to 
an account at our tribunal; but that we entertain such rever- 
ence for his secret judgments, as to esteem his will the most 
righteous cause of every thing that he does. When thick 
clouds obscure the heavens, and a violent tempest arises, be- 
cause a gloomy mist is before our eyes, and thunder strikes our 
ears, and terror stupefies all our faculties, all things seem to us 
to be blended in confusion; yet during the whole time the 
heavens remain in the same quiet serenity. So it must be 
concluded, that while the turbulent state of the world deprives 
us of our judgment, God, by the pure light of his own right- 
eousness and wisdom, regulates all those commotions in the 
most exact order, and directs them to their proper end. And 


(6) Psalm xl. 5, (c) John ix. 3 


196 INSTITUTES OF THE . [Boox 1. 


certainly the madness of many in this respect is monstrous, 
who dare to arraign the works of God, to scrutinize his secret 
counsels, and even to pass a precipitate sentence on things un- 
known, with greater freedom than on the actions of mortal 
men. For what is more preposterous than towards our equals 
to observe such modesty, as rather to suspend our judgment 
than to incur the imputation of temerity, but impudently to 
insult the mysterious judgments of God, which we ought to 
hold in admiration and reverence? 

II. None, therefore, will attain just and profitable views of 
the providence of God, but he who considers that he has to do 
with his Maker and the Creator of the world, and submits 
himself to fear and reverence with all becoming humility. 
Hence it happens that so many worthless characters in the 
present day virulently oppose this doctrine, because they will 
admit nothing to be lawful for God, but what agrees with the 
dictates of their own reason. They revile us with the utmost 
possible impudence, because, not content with the precepts of 
the law, which comprehend the will of God, we say that the 
world is governed also by his secret counsels ; as though, indeed, 
what we assert were only an invention of our own brain, and 
the Holy Spirit did not every where plainly announce the 
same, and repeat it in innumerable forms of expression. But 
as they are restrained by some degree of shame from daring to 
discharge their blasphemies against heaven, in order to indulge 
their extravagance with greater freedom, they pretend that they 
are contending with us. But unless they admit, that whatever 
comes to pass in the world is governed by the incomprehen- 
sible counsel of God, let them answer, to what purpose is it 
said in the Scripture that his “judgments are a great deep ” ?(d) 
For since Moses proclaims, that the will of God is not to be 
sought far off, in the clouds or in the deep, (e) because it is fa- 
miliarly explained in the law, it follows that there is another 
secret will, which is compared to a profound abyss; concerning 
which Paul also says, ‘“O the depth of the riches both of the 
wisdom and knowledge of God; how unsearchable are his 
judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath 
known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his coun- 
sellor?”’(f) It is true, that the law and the Gospel contain 
mysteries which far transcend our capacities; but since God 
illuminates the minds of his people with the spirit of under- 
standing, to apprehend these mysteries which he has conde- 
scended to reveal in his word, there we have now no abyss, 
but a way in which we may safely walk, and a lamp for the 
direction of our feet, the light of life, and the school of certain 
and evident truth. But his admirable method of governing 


(d) Psalm xxxvi. 6. e) Deut. xxx. 12—14. Rom. x. 6, 7. 
(f) Rom. xi. 33, 34. 


CHAP. XvII.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 197 


the world is justly called a “great deep,” because, while ‘it is 
concealed from our view, it ought to be the object of our pro- 
found adoration. Moses has beautifully expressed both in a 
few words. “I'he secret things,” says he, ‘belong unto the 
Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong 
unto us and to our children.” (¢) We see how he enjoins us, 
not only to devote our attention to meditations on the law of 
God, but to look up with reverence to his mysterious provi- 
dence. ‘T'his sublime doctrine is declared in the book of Job, 
for the purpose of humbling our minds. For the author con- 
cludes a general view of the machine of the world, and a 
magnificent dissertation on the works of God, in these words: 
“Lo, these are parts of his ways; but how little a portion is 
heard of him!’’(A) For which reason, in another place he 
distinguishes between the wisdom which resides in God, and 
the method of attaining wisdom which he has prescribed to 
men. For, after discoursing concerning the secrets of nature, 
he says, that wisdom is known only to God, and “is hid from 
the eyes of all living.” But a little after he subjoins, that it 1s 
published in order to be investigated, because it is said to men, 
‘Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.’’(7) To the 
same purpose is this observation of Augustine: ‘ Because we 
know not all that God does concerning us by an excellent 
order we act according to the law in a good will only, but in 
other \espects are actuated according to it; because his provi+ 
dence is an immutable law.” Therefore, since God claims a 
power unknown to us of governing the world, let this be to us 
the law of sobriety and modesty, to acquiesce in his supreme 
dominion, to account his will the only rule of righteousness, 
and mst righteous cause of all things. Not, indeed, that ab- 
solute will which is the subject of the declamation of sophists, 
impiously and profanely separating his justice from his power, 
but that providence which governs all things, from which 
originates nothing but what is right, although the reasons of it 
may be concealed from us. 

Ifl. Those who have learned this modesty, will neither 
murmur against God on account of past adversities, nor charge 
him with the guilt of their crimes, like Agamemnon, in Homer, 
who says, ‘‘ The blame belongs not to me, but to Jupiter and 
Fate.” Nor will they, as if hurried away by the Fates, under 
the influence of despair, put an end to their own lives, like the 
young man whom Plautus introduces as saying, ‘“‘ The condi- 
tion of our affairs is inconstant; men are governed by the 
caprice of the Fates; I will betake myself to a precipice, and 
‘here destroy my life and every thing at once.’”’ Nor will they 


(g) Deut. xxix.29. ° (hk) Job xxvi. 14. (¢) Job xxviii. 21, 28 


198 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK I 


excuse their flagitious actions by ascribing them to God, after 
the example of another young man introduced by the same 
poet, who says, ‘‘ God was the cause: I believe it was the D:- 
vine will. For had it not been so, I know it would not have 
happened.” But they will rather search the Scripture, to learn 
what is pleasing to God, that by the guidance of the Spirit 
they may strive to attain it; and at the same time, being pre- 
pared to follow God whithersoever he calls them, they will 
exhibit proofs in their conduct that nothing is more useful than 
a knowledge of this doctrine. Some profane men foolishly 
raise such a tumult with their absurdities, as almost, according 
to a common expression, to confound heaven and earth together. 
They argue in this manner: If God has fixed the moment of 
our death, we cannot avoid it; therefore all caution against it 
will be but lost labour. One man dares not venture himself in 
a way which he hears is dangerous, lest he should be assassin- 
ated by robbers; another sends for physicians, and wearies 
himself with medicines, to preserve his life ; another abstains 
from the grosser kinds of food, lest he should injure his vale- 
tudinary constitution ; another dreads to inhabit a ruinous 
house ; and men in general exert all their faculties in devising 
and executing methods by which they may attain the object 
of their desires. Now, either all these things are vain remedies 
employed to correct the will of God, or life and death, health 
and disease, peace and war, and other things which, according 
to their desires or aversions, men industriously study to obtain 
or to avoid, are not determined by his certain decree. More- 
over they conclude, that the prayers of the faithful are not only 
superfluous, but perverse, which contain petitions that the Lord 
will provide for those things which he has already decreed 
from eternity. In short, they supersede all deliberations re- 
specting futurity, as opposed to the providence of God, who, 
without consulting men, has decreed whatever he pleased. 
And what has already happened they impute to the Divine 
providence in such a manner as to overlook the person, who is 
known to have committed any particular act. Has an assassin 
murdered a worthy citizen? they say he has executed the 
counsel of God. Has any one been guilty of theft or fornica- 
tion ? because he has done what was foreseen and ordained by 
the Lord, he is the minister of his providence. Has a son, 
neglecting all remedies, carelessly waited the death of his 
father ? it was impossible for him to resist God, who had de- 
creed this event from eternity. Thus by these persons all 
crimes are denominated virtues, because they are subservient 
to the ordination of God. 

IV. But in reference to future things, Solomon easily recon- 
ciles the deliberations of men with the providence of God. 


CHAP. xvul.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 199 


For as he ridicules the folly of those who presumptuously un- 
dertake any thing without the Lord, as though they were not 
subject to his government, so in another place he says, “A 
man’s heart deviseth his way; but the Lord directeth his 
steps; (4) signifying that the eternal decrees of God form no 
impediment to our providing for ourselves, and disposing all 
our concerns in subservience to his will. The reason of this 
is manifest. For he who has fixed the limits of our life, has 
also intrusted us with the care of it; has furnished us with 
means and supplies for its preservation; has also made us 
provident of dangers; and, that they may not oppress us un- 
awares, has furnished us with cautions and remedies. Now, it 
is evident what is our duty. If God has committed to us the 
preservation of our life, we should preserve it; if he offers 
supplies, we should use them; if he forewarns us of dangers, 
we should not rashly run into them; if he furnishes remedies, 
we ought not to neglect them. But it will be objected, no 
danger can hurt, unless it has been ordained that it shall hurt. 
us, and then no remedies can avert it. But what if dangers 
are therefore not fatal, because God has assigned you remedies 
to repulse and overcome them? Examine whether your rea- 
soning agrees with the order of the Divine providence. You 
conclude that it is unnecessary to guard against danger, because, 
if it be not fatal, we shall escape it without caution; but, on 
the contrary, the Lord enjoins you to use caution, because he 
intends it not to be fatal to you. These madmen overlook 
what is obvious to every observer — that the arts of deliberation 
and caution in men proceed from the inspiration of God, and 
that they subserve the designs of his providence in the preser- 
vation of their own lives; as, on the contrary, by neglect and 
slothfulness, they procure to themselves the evils which he 
has appointed for them. For how does it happen, that a pru- 
dent man, consulting his own welfare, averts from himself im- 
pending evils, and a fool is ruined by his inconsiderate temerity, 
unless folly and prudence are in both cases instruments of the 
Divine dispensation? Therefore it has pleased God to con- 
ceal from us all future events, that we may meet them as 
doubtful contingencies, and not cease to oppose to them the 
remedies with which we are provided, till they shall have been 
surmounted, or shall have overcome all our diligence. ‘There- 
fore I have before suggested, that the providence of God ought © 
not always to be contemplated abstractedly by itself, but in | 
connection with the means which he employs. / 

VY. The same persons inconsiderately and erroneously ascribe 
all past events to the absolute providence of God. F*or since 
all things which come to pass are dependent upon it, therefore, 


(k) Prov. xvi. 9. 


200 INSTITUTE OF THE [Book 1, 


say they, neither thefts, nor adulteries, nor homicides, are per- 
petrated without the intervenvion of the Divine will. Why, 
therefore, they ask, shall a thief be punished for having pil- 
laged him whom it has pleased the Lord to chastise with 
poverty ? Why shall a homicide be punished for having slain 
him whose life the Lord had terminated? If all such charac- 
ters are subservient to the Divine will, why shall they be 
punished? But I deny that they serve the will of God. For 
we cannot say, that he who is influenced by a wicked heart, 
acts in obedience to the commands of God, while he is only 
gratifying his own malignant passions. ‘That man obeys God, 
who, being instructed in his will, hastens whither God calls 
him. Where can we learn his will, but in his word? 'There- 
fore in our actions we ought to regard the will of God, which 
is declared in his word. God only requires of us conformity 
to his precepts. If we do any thing contrary to them, it is not 
obedience, but contumacy and transgression. But it is said, if 
he would not permit it, we should not do ut. This I grant. 
But do we perform evil actions with the design of pleasing 
him? He gives us no such-command. We precipitate our- 
selves into them, not considering what is his will, but inflamed 
with the violence of our passions, so that we deliberately strive 
to oppose him. In this manner even by criminal actions we 
subserve his righteous ordination ; because, in the infinite great- 
ness of his wisdom, he well knows how to use evil instruments 
for the accomplishment of good. purposes. Now, observe the 
absurdity of their reasoning: they wish the authors of crimes 
to escape with impunity, because crimes are not perpetrated 
but by the ordination of God. I admit more than this; even 
that thieves, and homicides, and other malefactors, are instru- 
ments of Divine providence, whom the Lord uses for the exe- 
cution of the judgments which he has appointed. But I deny 
that this ought to afford any excuse for their crimes. For will 
they either implicate God in the same iniquity with them- 
selves, or cover their depravity with his righteousness? They 
can do neither. They are prevented from exculpating them- 
selves, by the reproofs of their own consciences; and they can 
lay no blame upon God, for they find in themselves nothing 
but evil, and in him only a legitimate use of their wickedness. 
But it is alleged that he operates by their means. And whence, 
I ask, proceeds the fetid smell of a carcass, which has been 
putrefied and disclosed by the heat of the sun? It is visible to 
all that it is excited by the solar rays; yet no person on this 
account attributes to those rays an offensive smell. So, when 
the matter and guilt of evil resides in a bad man, why should 
God be supposed to contract any defilement, if he uses his 
Service according to his own pleasure? Let us dismiss this 


CHAP. xvii. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 201 


petulance, therefore, which may rail against the justice of God 
from a distance, but can never reach that Divine attribute. 

VI. But these cavils, or rather extravagancies of frenzy, will 
easily be dispelled by the pious and holy contemplation of 
providence, which the rule of piety dictates to us, so that we 
may derive from it the greatest pleasure and advantage. The 
mind of a Christian, therefore, when it is certainly persuaded 
that all things happen by the ordination of God, and that there 
is nothing fortuitously contingent, will always direct its views 
to him as the supreme cause of all things, and will also con- 
sider inferior causes in their proper order. He will not doubt 
that the particular providence of God is watchful for his pre- 
servation, never permitting any event which it will not over- 
rule for his advantage and safety. But, since he is concerned 
in the first place with men, and in the next place with the 
other creatures, he will assure himself, as to both, that the pro- 
vidence of God reigns over all. With respect to men, whether 
good or evil, he will acknowledge that their deliberations, 
wills, endeavours, and powers, are under his control, so that it 
is at his option to direct them whithersoever he pleases, and 
to restrain them as often as he pleases. 'The vigilance of the 
particular providence of God for the safety of the faithful is 
attested by numerous and very remarkable promises: ‘‘ Cast 
thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall 
never suffer the righteous to be moved. (J) He that dwelleth 
in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the 
shadow of the Almighty. (m) He that toucheth you, toucheth 
the apple of his eye. We havea strong city: salvation will 
God appoint for walls and bulwarks.(m) ‘Though a woman 
forget her sucking child, yet will I not forget thee.” (0) More- 
over, this is the principal scope of the Biblical histories, to teach 
us that the Lord so sedulously defends the ways of the saints, 
that they may not even ‘dash their foot against a stone.” (p) 
Therefore, as we have a little before justly exploded the opinion 
of those who hold a universal providence of God, which de- 
-scends not to the care of every creature in particular, so it is 
principally necessary and useful to contemplate this special 
care towards ourselves. For this reason, Christ, after having 
asserted that not the meanest sparrow falls to the ground without 
the will of the Father, (q) immediately makes the following 
application — that the more we exceed the value of sparrows, 
the greater care we should consider God as exercising over us ; 
and he carries this to such an extent, that we may be confident 
that the hairs of our head are numbered. What more can we 


(1) Psalm lv. 22. 1 Peterv.7. (n) Zech. ii. 8. (p) Psalm xci. 12. 
(m) ‘Psalm xci. 1. (0) Isaiah xxvi. 1; xlix.15. (q) Matt.x.29,30. 


VOL. I. 26 


202 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK L 


desire for ourselves, if not a single hair can fall from our head, 


but according to his will? I speak not exclusively of the hu- 
man race; but since God has chosen the Church for his hab- 
itation, there is no doubt but he particularly displays his pater- 
nal care in the government of it. 

VIl. The servant of God, encouraged by these promises and 
examples, will add the testimonies, which inform us that all 
men are subject to his power, either to conciliate their minds 
in our favour, or to restrain their malice from being injurious. 
For it is the Lord who gives us favour, not only with our 
friends, but also in the eyes of the Egyptians; (7) and he 
knows how to subdue, by various methods, the fury of our 
enemies. Sometimes he deprives them of understanding, so 
that they can form no sober or prudent plans ; as he sent Satan 
to fill the mouths of all the prophets with falsehood, in order to 
deceive Ahab:(s) he infatuated Rehoboam by the counsel of 
the young men, that through his own folly he might be spoiled 
of his kingdom. (¢) Sometimes, when he grants them under- 
standing, he so terrifies and dispirits them, that they can 
neither determine nor undertake what they have conceived. 
Sometimes, also, when he has permitted them to attempt what 
their rage and passion prompted, he opportunely breaks their 
impetuosity, not suffering them to proceed to the accomplish- 
ment of their designs. Thus he prematurely defeated the coun- 
sel of Ahithophel, which would have been fatal to David. (w) 
Thus, also, he takes care to govern all creatures for the benefit 
and safety of his people, even the devil himself, who, we see, 
dared not to attempt any thing against Job, without his per- 
mission and command.(v) The necessary consequences of 
this knowledge are, gratitude in prosperity, patience in ad- 
versity, and a wonderful security respecting the future. Every 
prosperous and pleasing event, therefore, the pious man will 
ascribe entirely to God, whether his beneficence be received 
through the ministry of men, or by the assistance of inanimate 
creatures. For this will be the reflection of his mind: ‘It is 


certainly the Lord that has inclined their hearts to favour me, - 


that has united them to me to be the instruments of his benignity 
towards me.” In an abundance of the fruits of the earth, he will 
consider, that it is the Lord who regards the heaven, that the 
heaven may regard the earth, that the earth, also, may regard its 
own productions: in other things he will not doubt that it is the 
Divine benediction alone which is the cause of all prosperity ; 
nor will he bear to be ungrateful after so many admonitions. 
VIII. If any adversity befall him, in this case, also, he will 


(r) Exod. iii. 21. (s) 1 Kings xxii. 22. (t) 1 Kings xii. 10—15, 
(uw) 2 Sam. xvu. 7, 14. (v) Job i. 12. 


CHAP. xviI.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 203 


immediately lift up his heart to God, whose hand is most 
capable of impressing us with patience and placid moderation 
of mind. If Joseph had dwelt on a review of the perfidy of 
his brethren, he never could have recovered his fraternal af- 
fection for them. But as he turned his mind to the Lord, he 
forgot their injuries, and was so inclined to mildness and clem- 
ency, as even voluntarily to administer consolation to them, 
saying, ‘‘It was not you that sent me hither, but God did send 
me before you to save your lives. Ye thought evil against 
me; but God meant it unto good.” (w) If Job had regarded 
the Chaldeans, by whom he was molested, he had been in- 
flamed to revenge; but recognizing the event at the same 
time as the work of the Lord, he consoled himself with this 
very beautiful observation: ‘The Lord gave, and the Lord 
hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (x) 
“Thus David, when assailed by Shimei with reproachful lan- 
guage and with stones, if he had confined his views to man, 
would have animated his soldiers to retaliate the injury; but 
understanding that it was not done without the instigation of 
the Lord, he rather appeases them: ‘ Let him curse,” says he, 
“because the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David.” (y) In 
another place he imposes the same restraint on the intemper- 
ance of his grief: ‘‘I was dumb,” says he, ‘I opened not my 
mouth ; because thou didst it.’(z) If there be no more ef- 
ficacious remedy for anger and impatience, surely that man 
has made no small proficiency, who has learned in this case to 
meditate on the Divine providence, that he may be able at all 
times to recall his mind to this consideration: “ It is the will 
of the Lord, therefore it must be endured ; not only because 
resistance is unlawful and vain, but because he wills nothing 
but what is both just and expedient.,, The conclusion of the 
whole is this —that, when we suffer injuries from men, forget- 
ting their malice, which would only exasperate our grief and 
instigate our minds to revenge, we should remember to ascend 
to God, and learn to account it a certain truth, that whatever 
our enemies have criminally committed against us, has been 
permitted and directed by his righteous dispensation. ‘T'o 
restrain us from retaliating injuries, Paul prudently admonishes 
us that our contention is not with flesh and blood, but witha 
spiritual enemy, the devil, (@) in order that we may prepare 
ourselves for the contest. But this admonition is the most 
useful in appeasing all the sallies of resentment, that God arms 
for the conflict both the devil and all wicked men, and sits 
himself as the arbiter of the combat, to exercise our patience. 


w) Gen. xlv. 7, 8; 1. 20. x) Job i. 2]. y) 2 Sam. xvi. 10. 
¢ 
z) Psalm xxxix. 9. a) Eph. vi. 12. 
( Pp 


D904 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1 


But if the calamities and miseries which oppress us happen 
without the interposition of men, let us recollect the doctrine 
of the law, that every prosperous event proceeds from the ben- 
ediction of God, but that all adverse ones are his maledic- 
tions ; (b) and let us tremble at that awful denunciation, ‘“ If 
ye will walk contrary unto me, then will I also walk contrary 
unto you;?’ (c) language which reproves our stupidity, while, 
according to the common apprehensions of the flesh, esteeming 
every event, both prosperous and adverse, to be fortuitous, we 
are neither animated to the worship’ of God by his benefits, 
nor stimulated to repentance by his corrections. 'This is the 
reason of the sharp expostulations of Jeremiah and of Amos, (d) 
because the Jews supposed that both good and evil events 
came to pass without any appointment of God. ‘To the same 
purpose is this passage of Isaiah: ‘I form the light, and create 
darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all” 
these things.” (e) 

IX. Yet at the same time a pious man will not overlook in- 
ferior causes. Nor, because he accounts those from whom he 
has received any benefit, the ministers of the Divine goodness, 
will he therefore pass them by unnoticed, as though they de- 
served no thanks for their kindness ; but will feel, and readily 
acknowledge, his obligation to them, and study to return it as 
ability and opportunity may permit. Finally, he will rever- 
ence and praise God as the principal Author of benefits received, 
but will honour men as his ministers; and will understand, 
what, indeed, is the fact, that the will of God has laid him 
under obligations to those persons by whose means the Lord 
has been pleased to communicate his benefits. If he suffer 
any loss either through negligence or through imprudence, he 
will conclude that it happened according to the Divine will, 
but will also. impute the blame of it to himself. If any one 
be removed by ‘disease, whom, while it was his duty to take 
care of him, he has treated with neglect, — though he cannot be 
ignorant that that person had reached those limits which it 
was impossible for him to pass, yet he will not make this a 
plea to extenuate his guilt; but, because he has not faithfully 
performed his duty towards him, will consider him as having 
perished through his criminal negligence. Much less, when 
fraud and preconceived malice appear in the perpetration either 
of murder or of theft, will he excuse those enormities under 
the pretext of the Divine providence: in the same crime he 
will distinctly contemplate the righteousness of God and the 
miquity of man, as they. respectively discover themselves, 


(b) Deut. xxviii. 1, &c. (d) Lam. iii. 37, 38. Amos iii. 6. 
(c) Lev. xxvi. 23, 24. (e) Isaiah xlv. 7. 


CHAP. Xvit.| CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 205 


But it is principally in regard to things future that he will 
direct his attention to inferior causes of this kind. For he 
will rank it among the blessings of the Lord, not to be des- 
titute of human aids which he may use for his own safety ; 
he will neither be remiss, therefore, in taking the advice, nor 
negligent in imploring the help, of those whom he perceives 
to be capable of affording him assistance; but, considering all 
the creatures, that can in any respect be serviceable to him, as 
so many gifts from the Lord, he will use them as the legiti- 
mate instruments of the Divine providence. And as he is un- 
certain respecting the issue of his undertakings, except that he 
knows that the Lord will in all things provide for his good, he 
studiously aims at what, according to the best judgment he 
- ean form, will be for hig advantage. Nor, in conducting his 
deliberations, will he be carried away by his own opinion, but 
‘will recommend and resign himself to the wisdom of God, that 
he may be directed by its guidance to the right end. But he 
will not place his confidence in external helps to such a degree 
as, if possessed of them, securely to rely on them, or, if destitute 
of them, to tremble with despair. For his mind will always 
be fixed solely on the Divine providence, nor will he suffer 
himself to be seduced from a steady contemplation of it, by 
. any consideration of present things. ‘Thus Joab, though he 
acknowledges the event of battle to depend on the will and 
the power of God, yet surrenders not himself to inactivity, but 
sedulously executes all the duties of his office, and leaves the 
event to the Divine decision. . “ Let us play the men,’ says 
he, ‘‘for our people, and for the cities of our God; and the 
Lord do that which seemeth him good.” (f) This knowledge 
will divest us of temerity and false confidence, and excite us 
to continual invocations of God ; it will also support our minds 
with a good hope, that without hesitation we may securely 
and magnanimously despise all the dangers which surround us. 

X. Herein is discovered the inestimable felicity of the pious 
mind. Human life is beset by innumerable evils, and threat- 
ened with a thousand deaths. Not to go beyond ourselves, — 
since our body is the receptacle of a thousand diseases, and 
even contains and fosters the causes of diseases, a man must 
unavoidably carry about with him destruction in unnumbered 
forms, and protract a life which is, as it were, involved in death. 
For what else can you say of it, when neither cold nor heat 
in any considerable degree can be endured without danger? 
Now, whithersoever you turn, all the objects around you are 
not only unworthy of your confidence, but almost openly 
menace you, and seem to threaten immediate death. Embark 
in a ship; there is but a single step between you and death. 


(f) 2 Sam. x. 12 


206 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 4, 


Mount a horse ; the slipping of one foot endangers. your life. 
Walk through the streets of a city ; you are liable to as many 
dargers as there are tiles on the roofs. If there be a sharp 
weapon in your hand, or that of your friend, the mischief is 
manifest. All the ferocious animals you see are armed for 
your destruction. If you endeavour to shut yourself in a gar- 
den surrounded with a good fence, and exhibiting nothing but 
what is delightful, even there sometimes lurks a serpent. 
Your house, perpetually liable to fire, menaces you by day 
with poverty, and by night with falling on your head. Your 
land, exposed to hail, frost, drought, and various tempests, 
threatens you with sterility, and with its attendant, famine. 
I omit poison, treachery, robbery, and open violence, which 
partly beset us at home, and partly pursue us abroad. Amidst 
these difficulties, must not man be most miserable, who is 
half dead while he lives, and is dispirited and alarmed as 
though he had a sword perpetually applied to his neck? You 
will say that these things happen seldom, or certainly not 
always, nor to every man, but never all at once. I grant it; 
but as we are admonished by the examples of others, that it is 
possible for them to happen also to us, and that we have no 
more claim to exemption from them than others, we must un- 
avoidably dread them as events that we may expect. What 
can you imagine more calamitous than such adread? Besides, 
it is an insult to God to say that he has exposed man, the 
noblest of his creatures, to the blindness and temerity of for- 
tune. But here I intend to speak only of the misery which 
man must feel, if he be subject to the dominion of fortune. 
XI. On the contrary, when this light of Divine providence 
has once shined on a pious man, he is relieved and delivered 
not only from the extreme anxiety and dread with which he 
was previously oppressed, but also from all care. For, as he 
justly dreads fortune, so he ventures securely to commit him- 
self to God. This, I say, is his consolation, to apprehend 
that his heavenly Father restrains all things by his power, 
governs all things by his will, and regulates all things by his 
wisdom, in such a manner, that nothing can happen but by 
his appointment; moreover, that God has taken him under his 
protection, and committed him to the care of angels, so that 
he can sustain no injury from water, or fire, or sword, any 
further than the Divine Governor may be pleased to permit. 
For thus sings the Psalmist: “ Surely he shall deliver thee 
from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. 
He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings 
shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. 
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the 
arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh 


2 


oJ 


CHAP. XVII] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 207 


in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon- 
day.” (g¢) Hence also proceeds that confidence of glorying 
in the saints: “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear what 
man can do unto me. The Lord is the strength of my life ; 
of whom shall I be afraid? Though a host should encamp 
against me — though I walk through the valley of the shadow 
of death, I will fear no evil.” (h) How is it that their se- 
curity remains unshaken, while the world appears to be re- 
volving at random, but because they know that the Lord is 
universally operative, and confide in his operations as_ben- 
eficial to them? Now, when their safety is attacked, either by 
the devil or by wicked men, if they were not supported by the 
recollection and contemplation of providence, they must neces- 
sarily and immediately faint. But when they recollect, that 
the devil and the whole army of the wicked are in every 
respect so restrained by the Divine power, that they can 
neither conceive of any hostility against us, nor, after having 
conceived it, form a plan for its accomplishment, nor even 
move a finger towards the execution of such plan, any further 
than he has permitted, and even commanded them; and that 
they are not only bound by his chains, but also.compelled to 
do him service, — they have an abundant source of consolation. 
For as it belongs to the Lord to arm their fury, and to direct 
it to whatever objects he pleases, so it also belongs to him to 
fix its limits, that they may not enjoy an unbounded triumph 
according to their own wills. Established in this persuasion, 
Paul determined his journey in one place by the permission of 
God, which in another he had declared was prevented by 
Satan. (7) If he had only said that Satan was the obstacle, he 
would have appeared to attribute too much power to him, as 
though he were able to subvert the purposes of God; but 
when he states God to be the arbiter, on whose permission all 
journeys depend, he at the same time shows, that Satan, with 
all his machinations, can effect nothing but by his permission. 
For the same reason, David, on account of the various and con- 
stant vicissitudes of life, betakes himself to this asylum: ‘“‘ My 
times are in thy hand.’”’( 7) He might have mentioned either 
the course of life, or ¢éme, in the singular number ; but by the 
word times he intended to express, that, however unstable the 
condition of men may be, all the vicissitudes which take place 
are under the government of God. For which reason Rezin 
and the king of Israel, when, after the junction of their forces 
for the destruction of Judah, they resembled firebrands kin- 
dled to consume and ruin the land, are called by the Prophet 


(g) Psalm xci. 3—6. (t) 1 Cor. xvi. 7. 1 Thes. ii. 18 
(kh) Psalm cxviil.6; xxvii.1,3; xxiii.4. (7) Psalm xxxi. 15, 


208 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 1 


‘smoking firebrands,” (k) which can do nothing but emit a 
little smoke. Thus Pharaoh, when his riches, his strength, 
and the multitude of his forces, rendered him formidable to all, 
is himself compared to a sea-monster, and his forces to fishes. (2) 
Therefore God denounces that he will take both the captain 
and his army with his hook, and draw them whither he 
pleases. Finally, to dwell no longer on this part of the sub- 
ject, you will easily perceive, on examination, that ignorance 
of providence is the greatest of miseries, but that the know- 
ledge of it is attended with the highest felicity. 

XII. On the doctrine of Divine providence, as far as it may 
conduce to the solid instruction and consolation of the faithful, 
(for to satisfy a vain curiosity is neither possible nor desirable, } 
enough would now have been said, were it not for a dif- 
ficulty arising from a few passages, which apparently imply, in 
opposition to what has been stated, that the counsel of God is 
not firm and stable, but liable to change according to the sit- 
uation of sublunary affairs. In the first place, there are several 
instances in which repentance is attributed to God; as, that 
he repented of having created man, (m) and of having exalted 
Saul to the kingdom ;(2) and that he will repent of the evil 
which he had determined to inflict on his people, as soon as 
he shall have perceived their conversion.(o0) In the next 
place, we read of the abrogation of some of his decrees. By 
Jonah he declared to the Ninevites, ( p) that, after the lapse of 
forty days, Nineveh should be destroyed; but their penitence 
afterwards obtained from him a more merciful sentence. By 
the mouth of Isaiah he denounced death to Hezekiah ; (q) 
which the prayers and tears of that monarch moved -him to 
defer. (7) Hence many persons argue, that God has not fixed 
the affairs of men by an eternal decree; but that every year, 
day, and hour, he decrees one thing or another, according to 
the respective merits of each individual, or to his own ideas of 
equity and justice. With regard to repentance, we must not 
admit that it can happen to God, any more than ignorance, or 
error, or impotence. For if no man knowingly and willingly 
lays himself under the necessity of repentance, we cannot at- 
tribute repentance to God, without saying either that he is 
ignorant of the future, or that he cannot avoid it, or that he 
precipitately and inconsiderately adopts a resolution, of which 
he immediately repents. But that is so far from the mean- 
ing of the Holy Spirit, that in the very mention of repentance, 
he denies that it can belong to God, because “he is not a man, 
that he should repent.” (s) And it must be remarked, that 


(k) Isaiah vii. 4. (n) 1 Sam. xv. 11. (q) Isaiah xxxviii. 1, 5. 
(l) Ezek. xxix. 3, 4. (0) Jer. xviii. 8. (r) 2 Kings xx. 1, 5. 
(m) Gen. vi. 6. (p) Jonah iii. 4, 10. (s) 1 Sam, xv. 29. 


CHAP. XVII. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 209 


both these points are so connected in the same chapter, that a 
comparison fully reconciles the apparent inconsistency. Where 
it is said that God repented of having created Saul king, the 
change declared to have taken place is figurative. It is al- 
mest immediately added, that “The strength of Israel will 
not lie nor repent; for he is not a man, that he should re- 
pent ;’’(¢) in which, without any figure, his immutability is 
plainly asserted. It is certain, therefore, that the ordination 
of God in the administration of human affairs, is perpetual, and 
superior to all repentance. And to place his constancy beyond 
all doubt, even his adversaries have been constrained to attest 
it. For Balaam, notwithstanding his reluctance, was obliged: 
to break out into the following exclamation : ‘God is not a 
man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should 
repent : hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, 
and shall he not make it good?” (w) 

XU. How, then, it will be inquired, is the term repentance 
to be understood, when attributed to God? I reply, in the 
same manner as all the other forms of expression, which de- 
scribe God to us after the manner of men. For, since our in- 
firmity cannot reach his sublimity, the description of him 
which is given to us, in order that we may understand it, 
must be lowered to the level of our capacity. His method of 
lowering it, is to represent himself to us, not as he is in him- 
self, but according to our perception of him. 'Though he is 
free from all perturbation of mind, he declares that he is angry 
with sinners. (v) As, therefore, when we hear that God is angry, 
we ought not to imagine any commotion in him, but rather to 
consider this expression as borrowed from our perception, be- 
cause God carries the appearance of One who is Very angry, 
whenever he executes judgment, —so neither by the term re- 
pentance ought we to understand any thing but a change of ac- 
tions; because men are accustomed to express their dissatisfac- 
tion with themselves by changing their actions. Since every 
change among men, therefore, is a correction of that which dis- 
pleases them, and correction proceeds from repentance, there- 
fore the term repentance is used to signify that God makes a 
change in his works. Yet, at the same time, there is no altera- 
tion in his counsel or his will, nor any change in his affections ; 
but how sudden soever the variation may appear to the eyes of 
men, he perpetually and regularly prosecutes what he has fore- 
seen, approved, and decreed from eternity. 

XIV. Nor does the Sacred History, when it records the re- 
mission of the destruction which had just been denounced against 
the Ninevites, and the prolongation of the life of Hezekiah 


(t) 1 Sam. xv.29.  . (wu) Numb. xxiii. 19 (v) Psalm vii. 11. 
VOL. I. 27 


210 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 3 


after he had been threatened with death, prove that there was 
any abrogation of the Divine decrees. Persons who thus un- 
derstand it, are deceived in their ideas of the threatenings ; 
which, though expressed in the form of simple declarations, 
yet, as the event shows, contain in them a tacit condition. For 
why did God send Jonah to the Ninevites, to predict the ruin 
of their city? Why did he, by the mouth of Isaiah, warn Hez- 
ekiah of death? He could have destroyed both them and 
him, without previously announcing their end. He had some 
other object in view, therefore, than to forewarn them of their 
death, and to give them a distant prospect of its approach. And 
that was not to destroy them, but to reform them, that they 
might not be destroyed. Therefore the prediction of Jonah, 
that after forty days Nineveh should fall, was uttered to pre- 
vent its fall. Hezekiah was deprived of the hope of a longer 
life, in order that he might obtain a prolongation of it im an- 
swer to his prayers. Now, who does not see, that the Lord, by 
such denunciations as these, intended to arouse to repentance: 
the persons whom he thus alarmed, that they might escape the 
judgment which their sins had deserved? If this be admitted, 
the nature of the circumstances leads to the conclusion, that we 
must understand a tacit condition implied in the simple de- 
nunciation. This is also confirmed by similar examples. The 
Lord, reprehending king Abimelech for having deprived Abraham 
of his wife, uses these words: — ‘“ Behold, thou art but a dead 
man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is aman’s 
wife.” But after Abimelech has excused himself, the Lord 
speaks in this manner: “ Restore the man his wife; for he isa 
prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live ; and if 
thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, 
and all that are thine.” (w) Yousee how, by the first declaration, 
God terrifies his mind, to dispose him to make satisfaction ; but 
in the next, he makes an explicit declaration of his will. Since 
other passages are to be explained in a similar manner, you 
must not infer that there is any abrogation: of a prior purpose of 
the Lord, because he may have annulled some former declara- 
tions. For God rather prepares the way for his eternal ordina- 
tion, when, by a denunciation of punishment, he calls to repent- 
ance those whom he designs to spare, than makes any varia- 
tion in his will, or even in his declarations, except that he does 
not syllabically express what, nevertheless, is easily understood. 
For that assertion of Isaiah must remain true: ‘ The Lord of 
hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannuil it? and his hand 
is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?” (2) 


(w) Gen. xx. 3, 7. (z) Isaiah xiv. 27. 


CHAP. XVII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. Q11 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


GOD USES THE AGENCY OF THE IMPIOUS, AND INCLINES THEIR 
MINDS TO EXECUTE HIS JUDGMENTS, YET WITHOUT THE LEAST 
STAIN OF HIS PERFECT PURITY. 


A question of greater difficulty arises from other passages,, 
where God is said to incline or draw, according to his own 
pleasure, Satan himself and all the reprobate. For the carnal 
understanding scarcely comprehends how he, acting by their 
means, contracts no defilement from their criminality, and, 
even in operations common to himself and them, is free from 
every fault,and yet righteously condemns those whose ministry 
he uses. Hence was invented the distinction between doing and 
permitiing ; because to many persons this has appeared an in- 
explicable difficulty, that Satan and all the impious are subject to 
the power and government of God, so that he directs their malice 
to whatever end he pleases, and uses their crimes for the ex- 
ecution of his judgments. "The modesty of those who are 
alarmed at the appearance of absurdity, might perhaps be ex- 
cusable, if they did not attempt to vindicate the Divine justice 
from all accusation by a pretence utterly destitute of any foun- 
dation in truth They consider it absurd that a man should 
be blinded by the will and command of God, and afterwards 
be punished for his blindness. 'They therefore evade the dif- 
ficulty, by alleging that it happens only by the permission, and 
not by the will of God; but God himself, by the most un- 
equivocal declarations, rejects this subterfuge. ‘That men, 
however, can effect nothing but by the secret will of God, and 
can deliberate on nothing but what he has previously decreed, 
and determines by his secret direction, is proved by express 
and innumerable testimonies. What we have before cited 
from the Psalmist, that “God hath done whatsoever he hath 
pleased,” (y) undoubtedly pertains to all the actions of men. 
If God be'the certain arbiter of war and peace, as is there af- 
firmed, and that without any exception, who will venture to 
assert, that he remains ignorant and unconcerned respecting 
men, while they are actuated by the blind influence of chance? 
But this subject will be better elucidated by particular ex- 
amples. From the first chapter of Job we know that Satan 
presents himself before God to receive his commands, as well 
as the angels, who yield a spontaneous obedience. It is, indeed, 


(y) Psalm exv. 3. 


212 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 1 


in a different manner, and for a different end; yet he cannot 
attempt any thing but by the Divine will. Although he seems 
to obtain only a bare permission to afflict that holy man, yet, 
since this sentence is true, ‘The Lord gave, and the Lord 
hath taken away,’’(z) we conclude that God was the author 
of that trial, of which Satan and mischievous robbers and 
assassins were the immediate agents. Satan endeavours to 
drive him by desperation into madness. The Sabeans, in a 
predatory incursion, cruelly and wickedly seize upon property 
not their own. Job acknowledges that he was stripped of all 
his wealth, and reduced to poverty, because such was the will 
of God. ‘Therefore, whatever is attempted by men, or by 
Satan himself, God still holds the helm, to direct all their at- 
tempts to the execution of his judgments. God intends the 
deception of that perfidious king Ahab; the devil offers his 
service for that purpose; he is sent with a positive commission 
to be a lying spirit in the mouth of all the prophets.(a) If 
the blinding and infatuation of Ahab be a Divine judgment, the 
pretence of bare permission disappears. For it would be ridic- 
alous for a judge merely to permit, without decreeing what 
should be done, and commanding his officers to execute it. 
The Jews designed to destroy Christ; Pilate and his soldiers 
complied with their outrageous violence; yet the disciples, in 
a solemn prayer, confess that all the impious did nothing but 
what ‘‘the hand and the counsel of God determined before to 
be done ;’’(b) agreeably to what Peter had already preached, 
that he was “delivered by the determinate counsel and fore- 

knowledge of God,” that he might be “crucified and slain.” (¢) 
_ As though he had said that God, who saw every thing from 
the beginning, with a clear knowledge and. determined will, 
appointed what the Jews executed ; as he mentions in another 
place: ‘Those things which God before had showed by the 
mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so 
fulfilled.” (d) Absalom, defiling his father’s bed with incest, 
perpetrated a detestable crime; yet God pronounces that this 
was his work; for his words are, ‘‘'Thou didst it secretly; 
but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the 
sun.” (e) Whatever cruelty the Chaldeans exercised in Judea, 
Jeremiah pronounces to be the work of God;(f) for which 
reason Nebuchadnezzar is called the servant of God. God 
frequently proclaims, that the impious are excited to war by 
his hissing, by the sound of his trumpet, by his influence, and 
by his command: he calls the Assyrian the rod of his anger, 
and the staff which he moves with his hand. 'The destruction 


‘z) Job i. 21. (a) 1 Kings xxii. 20—23. (b) Acts iv. 28.  (c) Acts ii. 23 
(d) Acts ii. 18. (e) 2 Sam. xii. 125 xvi. 22.  (f) Jer. 1. 25. 


CHAP. XVIII. | CHRESTIAN RELIGION. 213 


of the holy city and the ruin of the temple he calls his own 
work.(g) David, not murmuring against God, but acknow- 
ledging him to be a righteous Judge, confesses the maledictions 
of Shimei to proceed from his command. ‘The Lord,” says 
he, ‘hath said unto him, Curse.” (hk) It often occurs in the 
Sacred History, that whatever comes to pass proceeds from the 
Lord; as the defection of the ten tribes, (7) the death of the 
sons of Eli,(7)and many events of a similar kind. Those who 
are but moderately acquainisd with the Scriptures will perceive 
that, for the sake of brevity, out of a great number of testi- 
monies, I have produced only a few ; which, nevertheless, abun- 
dantly evince how nugatory and insipid it is, instead of the 
providence of God, to substitute a bare permission; as though 
God were sitting in a watchtower, expecting fortuitous 
events, and so his decisions were dependent on the will of 
men. 

II. With respect to his secret influences, the declaration of 
Solomon concerning the heart of a king, that it is inclined 
hither or thither according to the Divine will, (%) certainly ex- 
tends to the whole human race, and is as much as though he 
had said, that whatever conceptions we form in our minds, 
they are directed by the secret inspiration of God. And cer- 
tainly, if he did not operate internally on the human mind, 
there would be no propriety in asserting, that he causes ‘“ the 
wisdom of the wise to perish, and the understanding of the 
prudent to be hid; that he poureth contempt upon princes, 
and causeth them to wander in the wilderness, where there 
is no way.” (/) And to this alludes, what we frequently read, 
that men are timorous, as their hearts are possessed with his ~ 
fear.(m) 'Thus David departed from the camp of Saul, with- 
out the knowledge of any one; ‘‘ because a deep sleep from 
the Lord was fallen upon them all.” (mz) But nothing can be 
desired more explicit than his frequent declarations, that he 
blinds the minds of men, strikes them with giddiness, inebriates 
them with the spirit of slumber, fills them with infatuation, 
and hardens their hearts. (0) These passages also many per- 
sons refer to permission, as though, in abandoning the repro- 
bate, God permitted them to be blinded by Satan. But that 
solution is too frivolous, since the Holy Spirit expressly de- 
clares that their blindness and infatuation are inflicted by the 
righteous judgment of God. He is said to have caused the 
obduracy of Pharaoh’s heart, and also to have aggravated and 
confirmed it. Some elude the force of these expressions with 


(g) Isaiah v. 26; x. 5; xix. 25. (h) 2 Sam. xvi. 10. (¢) 1 Kings xi. 31 
(j) 1 Sam. ii. 34. (k) Prov. xxi. 1. 
(l) Isaiah xxix. 14. Psalm evii.40. Ezek. vii. 26. (m) Lev. xxvi. 36. 
(n) 1 Sam. xxvi. 12. (0) Rom. i. 28; xi. 8. Exod. viii. 15. 


214: INSTITUTES OF THE [Book » 


a foolish cavil — that, since Pharaoh himself is elsewhere said 
to have hardened his own heart, his own will is stated as the 
cause of his obduracy; as though these two things were at 
all incompatible with each other, that man should be actuated 
by God, and yet at the same time be active himself. But I 
retort on them their own objection; for if hardening denotes 
a bare permission, Pharaoh cannot properly be charged with 
being the cause of his own obstinacy. Now, how weak and 
insipid would be such an interpretation, as though Pharaoh 
only permitted himself to be hardened! Besides, the Scripture 
cuts off all occasion for such cavils. God says, “ I will harden, 
his heart.” (p) So, also, Moses says, concerning the inhabitants - 
of Canaan, that they marched forth to battle, because the Lord 
had hardened their hearts ; (gq) which is likewise repeated by 
another Prophet —‘“‘ He turned their hearts to hate his peo- 
ple.” (7) Thus, also, in Isaiah, he declares he will ‘‘ send the 
Assyrian against a hypocritical nation, and will give him a 
charge to take the spoil, and to take the prey;” (s) not that 
he meant to teach impious and refractory men a voluntary 
obedience, but because he would incline them to execute his 
judgments, just as if they had his commands engraven on their 
minds. Hence it appears that they were impelled by the pos- 
itive appointment of God. I grant, indeed, that God often . 
actuates the reprobate by the interposition of Satan; but in 
such a manner that Satan himself acts his part by the Divine 
impulse, and proceeds to the extent of the Divine appointment. 
Saul was disturbed by an evil spirit; but it is said to be “‘ from 
the Lord ;”’ (¢) to teach us that Saul’s madness proceeded from 
_the righteous vengeance of God. Satan is also said to blind 
‘the minds of them which. believe not ;”’ (w) but the strength 
of the delusion proceeds from God himself, “‘ that they should 
believe a lie, who believe not the truth.” (v) According to 
one view of the subject, it is said, ‘If the prophet be deceived 
when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that 
prophet.”’(w) But, according to another, God is said himself 
to ‘‘ give men over to a reprobate mind,”(sz) and to the vilest 
lusts ; because he is the principal author of his own righteous 
vengeance, and Satan is only the dispenser of it. But as we 
- must discuss this subject again in the second book, where we 
shall treat of the freedom or slavery of the human will, I think 
I have now said, in a brief manner, as much as the occasion re- 
quired. ‘The whole may be summed up thus; that, as the will 
of God is said to be the cause of all things, his providence is 
established as the governor in all the counsels and works of 


(p) Exod. iv. 21. (s) Isaiah x. 6. (v) 2 Thess. ii. 10—12 
(q) Deut. ii. 30. Joshua xi. 20. (¢) 1 Sam. xvi. 14. (w) Ezek. xiv. 9. 
(r) Psalm cv. 25, (u) 2 Cor. iv. 4. (x) Rom. i. 28. 


CHAP. XVIII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 215 


men, so that it not only exerts its power in the elect, who are 
influenced by the Holy Spirit, but also compels the compliance 
of the reprobate. 

II. But, as I have hitherto only recited such things as are 
delivered without any obscurity or ambiguity in the Scriptures, 
let persons who hesitate not to brand with ignominy those 
oracles of heaven, beware what kind of opposition they make. 
For, if they pretend ignorance, with a desire to be commended 
for their modesty, what greater instance of pride can be con- 
ceived, than to oppose one little word to the authority of God! 
as, “It appears otherwise to me,” or, “‘I would rather not 
meddle with this subject.” But if they openly censure, what 
will they gain by their puny attempts against heaven? ‘Their 
petulance, indeed, is no novelty ; for in all ages there have been * 
impious and profane men, who have virulently opposed this 
doctrine. But they shall feel the truth of what the Spirit 
long ago declared by the mouth of David, that God “ is clear 
when he judgeth.”’(y) David obliquely hints at the madness 
of men who display such excessive presumption amidst their 
insignificance, as not only to dispute against God, but to arro- 
gate to themselves the power of condemning him. In the 
mean time, he briefly suggests, that God is unaffected by all 
the blasphemies which they discharge against heaven, but that 
he dissipates the mists of calumny, and illustriously displays 
his righteousness ; our faith, also, being founded on the Divine 
word, (z) and therefore, superior to all the world, from its exalta- 
tion looks down with contempt upon those mists. For their 
first objection, that, if nothing happens but by the will of God, 
he has in him two contrary wills, because he decrees in his 
secret counsel what he has publicly prohibited in his law, is 
easily refuted. But before I reply, I wish the reader again to 
be apprized, that this cavil is directed, not against me, but 
against the Holy Spirit, who dictated to the pious Job this 
confession, that what had befallen him had happened accord- 
ing to the Divine will: when he had been plundered by ban- 
ditti, he acknowledged in their injuries the righteous scourge 
of God.(a@) What says the Scripture in another case? 
“They,” the sons of Eli, ‘ hearkened not unto the voice of 
their father, because the Lord would slay them.” (b) The 
Psalmist also exclaims, that ‘God,’ who “is in the heavens, 
hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.” (c) And now I have 
sufficiently proved, that God is called the author of all those 
things, which, according to the system of these censors, hap 
pen only by his uninfluential permission. He declares that he 


(y) Psalm li. 4. (z) 1 John v. 4. (a) Job i. 21. 
y i 
(6) 1 Sam. ii. 25. (c) Psalm cxv. 3. 


216 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 1 


creates light and darkness, that he forms good and evil, (d) 
and that no evil occurs, which he has not performed. ‘Let 
them say, then, whether he exercises his judgments voluntarily 
or Snyoluntaniy. But as Moses suggests, that he who is killed 
by the fortuitous fall of an axe, is delivered by God to the 
stroké, (e) so in the Acts, the whole church asserts that Herod 
and Pilate conspired to do what the hand and the counsel of 
God had predetermined. (f) And indeed, unless the cruci- 
fixion of Christ was according to the will of God, what be- 
comes of our redemption? Yet the will of God is neither 
repugnant to itself, nor subject to change, nor chargeable with 
pretending to dislike what it approves; but whilst in him it is 
uniform and simple, it wears to us the appearance of variety ; 
- because the weakness of our understanding comprehends not 
how the same thing may be in different respects both agree- 
able to his will, and contrary to it. Paul, after having said 
that the vocation of the Gentiles was a hidden mystery, adds, 
that it contained a manifestation of the manifold wisdom of 
God.(g) Now, because, through the dulness of our capacity, 
the Divine wisdom appears to us manifold, (or multiform, as it 
has been translated by an ancient interpreter,) shall we there- 
fore dream of any vanity in God himself, as though his coun- 
sels were mutable, or his thoughts contradictory to each other ? 
Rather, while we comprehend not how God intends that to be 
done, the doing of which he forbids, let us remember our 
unbecility, and at the same time consider, that the light which 
he inhabits, is justly called inaccessible, (A) because it is over- 
spread with impenetrable darkness. Therefore all pious and 
modest men will easily acquiesce in this opinion of Augustine : 
“That aman may sometimes choose, with a good intention, 
that which is not agreeable to the will of God; as, if a good 
son wishes his father to live, whilst God determines that he 
shall die. It is also possible for a man to will with a bad 
design, what God wills with a good one; as, if a bad son 
wishes his father to die, which is also the will of God. Now, 
the former wishes what is not agreeable, the latter what is 
agreeable to the Divine will. And yet the filial affection of 
the former is more consonant to the righteous will of God, 
than the want of natural affection in the latter, though it ac- 
cords with his secret design. So great is the difference 
between what belongs to the human will, and what to the 
Divine, and between the ends to which the will of every one 
is to be referred, for approbation or censure. For God fulfils 
his righteous will by the wicked wills of wicked men.” ‘This » 
writer oad just before said, that the apostate angels, and all 


(d) Isaiah xlv. 7. Amos iii. 6. (e) Deut. xix. 5. (f) Acts iv. 28. 
(g) Ephes. ii. 9, 10. (h) 1 Tim. vi. 16. 


CHAP. xvitl.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 217 


the reprobate, in their defection, acted, as far as respected 
themselves, in direct opposition to the Divine will; but that 
this was not possible with respect to the Divine omnipotence ; 
because, while they are opposing the will of God, his will is 
accomplished concerning them. Whence he exclaims, ‘ The 
works of the Lord are great, prepared according to all his deter- 
minations ;” (7) so that, in a wonderful and ineffable manner, 
that is not done without his: will which yet is contrary to his 
will ; because it would not be done if he did not permit it ; 
and this permission is not involuntary, but voluntary ; nor 
would his goodness permit the perpetration of any evil, unless 
his omnipotence were able even from that evil to educe good.” 

IV. In the same manner we answer, or rather annihilate, 
another objection — that, if God not only uses the agency of the 
impious, but governs their designs and affections, he is the 
author of all crimes ; and therefore men are undeservedly con- 
demned, if they execute what God has decreed, because they 
obey his will. For his will is improperly confounded with 
his precept, between which innumerable examples evince the 
difference to be very great. For although, when Absalom 
defiled the wives of his father, it was the will of God by this 
disgrace to punish the adultery of David, (k) he did not there- 
fore command that abandoned son to commit incest, unless 
perhaps with respect to David, as he speaks of the reproaches 
of Shimei.(/) For when he confesses Shimei’s maledictions 
to proceed from the Divine command, he by no means com- 
mends his obedience, as though that impudent and worthless 
man were fulfilling a Divine precept; but acknowledging his 
tongue as the scourge of God, he patiently submits to the 
chastisement. Let it be remembered, that whilst God by 
means of the impious fulfils his secret decrees, they are not 
excusable, as though they were obedient to his precepts, which 
they wantonly and intentionally violate. The direction of the 
perverse actions of men, by the secret providence of God, is 
illustriously exemplified in the election of Jeroboam to the 
regal dignity. (m) The temerity and infatuation of the people 
in this proceeding are severely condemned, (7) because they 
perverted the order established by God, and perfidiously re- 
volted from the family of David; and yet we know that this 
event was agreeable to the Divine will. Whence there is an 
appearance of contradiction also in the language of Hosea; for 
in one place God complains that the erection of that kingdom 
was without his knowledge and against his will; but in an- 
other declares that he gave Jeroboam to be a king in his 
anger.(0) How can these things be reconciled, that Jeroboam 

(zt) Psalm exi. 2. (1) 2 Sam. xvi. 10. (n) Hosea viii. 4. 
(k) 2 Sam. xvi. 22. (m) 1 Kings xii. 20. (0) Hosea xi. 11 
VoL. I. 28 


218 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooxK 1. 


did not reign by the will of God, and yet that God ap- 
pointed him to be king? Why, thus: because neither could 
the people revolt from the family of David, without shaking 
off the yoke which God had imposed upon them; nor yet was 
God deprived of the liberty of thus punishing the ingratitude 
of Solomon. We see, then, how God, while he hates perfidy, 
yet righteously and with a different design decrees the de- 
fection; whence also Jeroboam is, beyond all expectation, 
constrained by the holy unction to assume the regal office. 
In the same manner, the Sacred History relates, that God 
raised up an enemy, to deprive the son of Solomon of part of 
the kingdom.(p) Let the reader diligently consider both 
these things: because it had pleased God that the people 
should be under the government of one king, their division 
into two parts was contrary to his will; and yet from his will 
the schism first originated. For certainly since a Prophet, 
both by a prediction and by the ceremony of unction, excited 
a hope of succeeding to the kingdom, in the mind of Jero- 
boam, who before entertained not a thought of such an event, 
this could not be done, either without the knowledge, or 
against the will, of God, who commanded it to be done; and 
yet the rebellion of the people is justly condemned, because, 


in opposition to the Divine will, they revolted from the pos- 


terity of David. Thus, also, it is afterwards subjoined, that 
‘the cause’ of the haughty contempt of the people manifested 
by Rehoboam ‘“ was of God, that the Lord might perform his 
word, which he spake by the hand of Ahijah ” his servant. (q) 
See how the sacred union is divided, in opposition to the will 
of God, and yet by his will the ten tribes are alienated from 
the son of Solomon. Let us add another similar example, 
where, with the consent, and even by the assistance of the 
people, the sons of Ahab are massacred, and all his posterity 
exterminated. (r) Jehu, indeed, truly observed that “ there 
had fallen unto the earth nothing of the word of the Lord,” 
but that he had ‘done that which he spake by his servant 
Elijah.” And yet he justly reprehends the citizens of Samaria 
for having lent their assistance. ‘Are ye righteous?” says 


he ; “behold, I conspired against my master, and slew him; — 


but who slew all these?” If Iam not deceived, I have now 
clearly explained how the same act displays the criminality of 
men and the justice of God. And to modest minds this an- 
swer of Augustine will always be sufficient: “Since God de- 
livered Christ, and Christ delivered his own body, and Judas 
delivered the Lord, why, in this delivery, is God righteous and 
man guilty? Because in the same act, they acted not from 


(p)-1 Kings xi. 23. (q) 1 Kings xii. 15, 2 Chron. x. 15. 
(r) 2 Kings x. 7, 8, 9, 10. 


% 
CHAP. XVIII. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 219 


the same cause.” But if any persons find greater difficulty in 
what we now assert, that there is no consent between God 
and man, in cases where man by his righteous influence com- 
mits unlawful actions, let them remember what is advanced by 
Augustine in another place: ‘‘ Who can but tremble at those 
judgments, when God does even in the hearts of the wicked 
whatsoever he pleases, and yet renders to them according to 
their demerits ?”’ And certainly it would no more be right to 
attribute to God the blame of the perfidy of Judas, because he 
decreed the delivery of his Son, and actually delivered him to 
death, than to transfer to Judas the praise of redemption. 
Therefore the same writer elsewhere informs us, that in this 
scrutiny God inquires, not what men could have done, nor 
what they have done, but what they intended to do, that he 
may take cognizance of their design and their will. -Let those 
to whom there appears any harshness in this procedure, con- 
sider a little how far their obstinacy is tolerable, while they 
reject a truth whichis attested by plain testimonies of Scripture, 
because it exceeds their comprehension, and condemn the pub- 
lication of those things which God, unless he had known 
that the knowledge of them would be useful, would never have 
commanded to be taught by his Prophets and Apostles. For 
our wisdom ought to consist in embracing with gentle docility, 
and without any exception, all that is delivered in the sacred 
Scriptures. But those who oppose this doctrine with less 
modesty and greater violence, since it is evident that their oppo- 
sition is against God, are unworthy of a longer refutation. 


INSTITUTES 


OF THE 


CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 


BOOK Il. 


ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD THE REDEEMER IN CHRIST, 
WHICH WAS REVEALED FIRST TO THE FATHERS UNDER 
THE LAW, AND SINCE TO US IN THE GOSPEL. 


ARGUMENT. 


Tue discussion of the first part of the Apostolic Creed, on the know- 
ledge of God the Creator, being finished, is followed by another, on 
the knowledge of God the Redeemer in Christ, which is the subject 
of this Second Book. 

It treats, first, of the occasion of redemption, that is, the fall of Adam; 
secondly, of the redemption itself. The former of these subjects 
occupies the first five chapters; the remaining ones are assigned to 
the latter. 

On the occasion of redemption, it treats, not only of the fall in general, 
but also of its effects in particular; that is, of original sin, the sla- 
very of the will, the universal corruption of human nature, the 
operation of God in the hearts of men—Chap. I.—IV., to which is 
subjoined a refutation of the objections commonly adduced in de- 
fence of free will—Chap. V. 

The discourse on redemption may be divided into five principal parts, 
It shows, 

1. In whom salvation must be sought by lost man, that is, in Christ— 
Chap. VI. 

2. How Christ has been manifested to the world; which has been in 


cuap. 1.] ARGUMENT. al 


two ways; first, under the law (which introduces an explanation of 
the Decalogue, and a discussion of some other things relative to the 
Law)—Chap. VII. VIII. ; secondly, under the Gospel, which leads 
to a statement of the similarity and difference of the two Testaments 
—Chap. IX.—XI. 

3. What kind of a being it was necessary for Christ to be, in order to 
his fulfilment of the office of a Mediator; that is, God and man in 
one person—Chap. XII.—XIV. 

4. The end of his mission from the Father into the world—Chap. XV., 
which explains his prophetical, regal, and sacerdotal offices. 

5. The methods or steps by which he fulfilled the part of a Redeemer, 
to procure our salvation—Chap. XVI.; which discusses the articles 
relating to his crucifixion, death, burial, descent into hell, resurrec- 
tion, ascension to heaven, session at the right hand of the Father, 
and the benefits arising from this doctrine. Then follows Chap. 
XVII., a solution of the question, Whether Christ merited for us the 
grace of God and salvation. 


CHAPTER I. 


THE FALL AND DEFECTION OF ADAM THE CAUSE OF THE CURSE 
INFLICTED ON ALL MANKIND, AND OF THEIR DEGENERACY 
FROM THEIR PRIMITIVE CONDITION. THE DOCTRINE OF 
ORIGINAL SIN. 


THERE is much reason in the old adage, which so strongly 
recommends to man the knowledge of himself. For if it be 
thought disgraceful to be ignorant of whatever relates to the 
conduct of human life, ignorance of ourselves is much more 
shameful, which causes us, in deliberating on subjects of im- 
portance, to grope our way in miserable obscurity, or even in 
total darkness. But in proportion to the utility of this precept 
ought to be our caution not to make a preposterous use of it; 
as we see some philosophers have done. For while they ex- 
hort man to the knowledge of himself, the end they propose is, 
that he may not remain ignorant of his own dignity and excel- 
lence: nor do they wish him to contemplate in himself any 
thing but what may swell him with vain confidence, and in- 
flate him with pride. But the knowledge of ourselves consists, 
first, in considering what was bestowed on us at our creation, 
and the favours we continually receive from the Divine benig- 


TD, INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK 11. 


nity, that we-may know how great the excellence of our nature 
would have been, if it had retained its integrity; yet, at the 
same time, recollecting that we have nothing properly our own, 
may feel our precarious tenure of all that God has conferred on 
us, so as always to place our dependence upon him. Secondly, 
we should contemplate our miserable condition since the fall of 
Adam, the sense of which tends to destroy all boasting and 
confidence, to overwhelm us with shame, and to fill us with 
real humility. For as God, at the beginning, formed us after 
his own image, that he might elevate our minds both to the 
practice of virtue, and to the contemplation of eternal life, 
so, to prevent the great excellence of our species, which dis- 
tinguishes us from the brutes, from being buried in sottish 
indolence, it is worthy of observation, that the design of our 
being endued with reason and intelligence is, that, leading a 
holy and virtuous life, we may aspire to the mark set be- 
fore us of a blessed immortality. But we cannot think upon 
that primeval dignity, without having our attention imme- 
diately called to the melancholy’ spectacle of our disgrace 
and ignominy, since in the person of the first man we are 
fallen from our original condition. Hence arise disappro- 
bation and abhorrence of ourselves, and real humility; and 
we are inflamed with fresh ardour to seek after God, to re- 
cover in him those excellences of which we find ourselves 
utterly destitute. 

II. This is what the truth of God directs us to seek in 
the examination of ourselves: it requires a knowledge that 
will abstract us from all confidence in our own ability, de- 
prive us of every cause of boasting, and reduce us to sub- 
mission. We must observe this rule, if we wish to reach 
the proper point of knowledge and action. I am aware of 
the superior plausibility of that opinion, which invites us rather 
to a consideration of our goodness, than to a view of our 
miserable poverty and ignominy, which ought to overwhelm 
us with shame. For there is nothing more desired by the 
human mind than soothing flatteries; and therefore, it listens 
with extreme credulity, to hear its excellences magnified. 
Wherefore it is the less wonderful that the majority of mankind 
have fallen into such a pernicious error. For, an immoderate 
self-love being innate in all men, they readily persuade them- 
selves that there is nothing in them which justly deserves 
to be an object of aversion. 'Thus, without any extraneous 
support, this very false opinion, that man has in himself 
sufficient ability to insure his own virtue and happiness, ge- 
nerally prevails. But if some prefer more modest sentiments, 
though they concede something to God, in order to avoid 
the appearance of arrogating every thing to themselves, yet 


CHAP. 1.] : CHRISTIAN RELIGION. QOS. 


they make such a distribution, that the principal cause of 
poasting and confidence always remains with them. If they 
hear any discourse that flatters the pride already operating 
spontaneously in their hearts, nothing can gratify them more. 
Therefore every one who in his preaching has kindly ex- 
tolled the excellence of human nature, has received great ap- 
plause from almost all ages. But such a commendation of 
human excellence as teaches man to be satisfied with him- 
self, only enamours him of his own amiableness, and thus 
produces an illusion which involves those who assent to it 
in most dreadful perdition. For to what purpose is it for us, 
relying on every vain confidence, to deliberate, to determine, 
and to attempt things which we think tend to our advantage, 
and in our first efforts, to find ourselves destitute of sound 
understanding and true virtue, yet securely to proceed, till 
we fall into destruction? But this must be the fate of all who 
confide in the efficacy of their own virtue. Whosoever, there- 
fore, attends to such teachers as amuse us with a mere exhibi- 
tion of our virtues, will make no progress in the knowledge of 
himself, but will be absorbed in the most pernicious ignorance. 

Ill. Therefore, whilst the truth of God agrees in this point 
with the common consent of all mankind, that the second 
branch of wisdom consists in the knowledge of ourselves, yet 
with respect to the knowledge itself there is no small disagree- 
ment. For, according to carnal apprehension, a man is thought 
to be well acquainted with himself, when, confiding in his own 
understanding and integrity, he assumes a presumptuous bold- 
ness, incites himself to the duties of virtue, and, declaring war 
against vice, uses his most strenuous endeavours to adhere to 
what is fair and honourable. But he, who inspects and ex- 
amines himself by the rule of the Divine judgment, finds noth- 
ing that can raise his mind to a genuine confidence; and the 
more fully he has examined himself, the greater is his dejec- 
tion ; till, entirely discarding all confidence, he leaves himself 
no ability for the proper conduct of his life. Yet it is not 
the will of God that we should forget the. primitive dignity 
conferred by him on our father Adam, which ought justly to 
awaken us to the pursuit of righteousness and goodness. For 
we cannot reflect on our original condition, and on the end of 
our creation, without being excited to meditate on immortality, 
and to aspire after the kingdom of God. But this reflection is 
so far from elating us with pride, that it rather produces hu- 
mility. For what is that original condition? ‘That from 
which we are fallen. What is that end of our creation? 
That from which we are wholly departed; so that we should 
lament the miseries of our present state, and in the midst of 
our lamentation, aspire after the dignity which we have lost. 


QA, INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox m. 


Now, when we say that man should behold 1 himself nothing 
that might elate him with pride, we mean that there is nothing 
in him in the confidence of which he ought to be proud. 
Wherefore we may divide the knowledge man ought to have 
of himself into these two parts. First, he should consider the 
end of his being created and endued with such estimable gifts; 
a reflection which may excite him to the consideration of Di- 
vine worship, and of a future life. Secondly, he should exa- 
mine his own ability, or rather his want of ability, the view of 
which may confound and almost annihilate him. The former 
consideration is adapted to acquaint him with his duty, the lat- 
ter with his power to perform it. We shall treat of them both 
in regular order. 

IV. But, since it could not have been a trivial offence, but 
must have been a detestable crime, that was so severely pu- 
nished by God, we must consider the nature of Adam/’s sin, 
which kindled the dreadful flame of Divine wrath against the 
whole human race. The vulgar opinion concerning the intem- 
perance of gluttony is quite puerile; as though the sum and 
substance of all virtues consisted in an abstinence from one 
particular kind of fruit, when there were diffused on every side 
all the delights which could possibly be desired, and the happy 
fecundity of the earth afforded an abundance and variety of 
dainties. We must therefore look further, because the prohibi- 
tion of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was a test of obe- 
dience, that Adam might prove his willing submission to the Di- 
vine government. And the name itself shows that the precept 
was given for no other purpose than that he might be content- 
ed with his condition, and not aim with criminal cupidity at 
any higher. But the promise which authorized him to expect 
eternal life, as long as he should eat of the tree of life, and, on 
the other hand, the dreadful denunciation of death, as soon as 
he should taste of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, were 
calculated for the probation and exercise of his faith. Hence 
it is easy to infer by what means Adam provoked the wrath 
of God against him. Augustine, indeed, properly observes, that 
pride was the first of all evils; because, if ambition had not 
elated man beyond what was lawful and right, he might have 
continued in his honourable situation. But we may obtain a 
more complete definition from the nature of the temptation as 
described by Moses. For as the woman, by the subtlety of 
the serpent, was seduced to discredit the word of God, it is 
evident that the fall commenced in disobedience. This is also 
confirmed by Paul, who states that all men were ruined by the 
disobedience of one.(s) ‘But it is also to be observed, that 
when the first man rebelled against the government of God, he 


(s) Rom. v. 19 


* 


CHAP. ‘1. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 225 


not only was ensnared by the allurements of Satan, but despised 
the truth, and turned aside to falsehood. And there certainly 
can be no reverence of God left, where his word is contemned ; 
for we preserve a sense of his majesty and the purity of his 
worship, no longer than we implicitly attend to his voice. In- 
fidelity, therefore, was the root of that defection” But hence 
sprang ambition, pride, and ingratitude, since Adam, by covet- 
ing more than was granted, offered an indignity to the Divine 
goodness, which had so greatly enriched him. Now, it was 
monstrous impiety, that a son of the earth should not be satis- 
fied with being made after the similitude of God, unless he 
could also be equal to him. If apostasy, which consists in re- 
volting from the government of the Creator, and petulantly re- 
jecting his authority, be a base and execrable crime, it is a vain 
attempt to extenuate the sin of Adam. 'Though the transgres- 
sion of our first parents was not simple apostasy ; they were also 
guilty of vile reproaches against God, in consenting to the ca- 
lumnies of Satan, who accused God of falsehood, envy, and 
malignity. Finally, infidelity opened the gate to ambition, and 
ambition produced obstinacy, so that they cast off the fear of 
God, and precipitated paerneebies whithersoever they were led by 
their lawless desires. “With propriety, therefore, Bernard teaches 
that the gate of salvation is opened to us, when in the present 
day we receive the Gospel with our ears, as death was once ad- 
mitted at the same doors when they lay open to Satan. For 
Adam had never dared to resist the authority of God, if he had 
not discredited his word. This was certainly the best check 
for a due regulation of all the affections, that the chief good 
consists in the practice of righteousness, i in obedience to the 
commands of God; and that the ultimate end of a happy life is 
to be beloved by him. Being seduced, therefore, by the blas- 
phemies of the devil, he did all that was in his power towards 
a total annihilation of the glory of God.’ 

VY. As the spiritual life of Adam consisted in a union to his 
Maker, so an alienation from him was the death of his soul. Nor is 
it surprising that he ruined his posterity by his defection, which 
has perverted the whole order of nature in heaven and earth. 
“The creatures groan,’’ says Paul, ‘‘ being made subject to vani- 
ty, not willingly.” (t) Ifthe cause be inquired, it is undoubtedly 
that they sustain part of the punishment due to the demerits of 
man, for whose use they were created. And his guilt being the 
origin of that curse which extends to.every part of the world, it is 
reasonable to conclude its propagation to all his offspring. ‘There- 
fore, when the Divine image in him was obliterated, and he was 
punished with the loss of wisdom, strength, sanctity, truth, and 


(t) Rom. viii. 20, 22. 
“VOL. .I. 29 


296 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 14. 


righteousness, with which he had been adorned, but which were 
succeeded by the dreadful pests of ignorance, impotence, impuri- 
ty, vanity, and iniquity, he suffered not alone, but involved all his 
posterity with him, and plunged them into the same miseries. 
This is that hereditary corruption which the fathers called orzgi- 
nal sin ; meaning by sin, the depravation of anature previously 
good and pure; on which subject they had much contention, 
nothing being more remote from natural reason, than that all 
should be criminated on account of the guilt of one, and thus 
his si become common; which seems to have been the rea- 
son why the most ancient doctors of the Church did but obseure- 
ly glance at this point, or at least explained it with less perspi- 
cuity than it required. Yet this timidity could not prevent 
Pelagius from arising, who profanely pretended, that the sin of 
Adam only ruined himself, and did not injure his descendants. 
By concealing the disease with this delusion, Satan attempted 
to render it incurable. But when it was evinced by the plain 
testimony of the Scripture, that sin was communicated from 
the first man to all his posterity, he sophistically urged that it 
was communicated by imitation, not by propagation. 'There- 
fore good men, and beyond all others Augustine, have laboured 
to demonstrate that we are not corrupted by any adventitious 
means, but that we derive an innate depravity from our very 
birth. The denial of this was an instance of consummate im- 
pudence. But the temerity of the Pelagians and Celestians 
will not appear surprising to him who perceives from the wri- 
tings. of Augustine, what a want of modesty they discover in 
every thing else. There is certainly no ambiguity in the con- 
fession of David, that he was shapen in iniquity, and in sin 
his mother conceived him.(v) He is not there exposing the 
sins of his mother or of his father; but to enhance his com- 
mendations of the Divine goodness towards him, he commences 
the confession of his depravity from the time of his conception. 
As it is evident that this was not peculiar to David, it is fairly 
concluded, that his case exemplifies the common condition of 
mankind. Every descendant, therefore, from the impure source, 
is born infected with the contagion of sin; and even before we 
behold the light of life, we are in the sight of God defiled and 
polluted. For “who can bring a clean thing out of an un- 
clean?” ‘The book of Job tells us, ‘‘ Not one.” (w) 

VI. We have heard that the impurity of the parents is so 
transmitted to the children, that all, without a single exception, 
are polluted as soon as they exist. But we shall not find the 
origin of this pollution, unless we ascend to the first parent of 
us all, as to the fountain which sends forth all the streams. 


(v) Psalm li. 5. (w) Job xiv. 4. 


tHap. 1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. Pah de 


Thus it is certain that Adam was not only the progenitor, but 
as it were the root of mankind, and therefore that all the race 
were necessarily vitiated in his corruption. The Apostle ex- 
plains this by a comparison between him and Christ: “ As,” 
siys he, “ by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, 
and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned,” (2) 
so, by the grace of Christ, righteousness and life have been 
restored to us. What cavil will the Pelagians raise here? 
That the sin of Adam was propagated by imitation? Do we 
then receive no other advantage from the righteousness of Christ 
than the proposal of an example for our imitation? Who can 
bear such blasphemy? But if it cannot be controverted that 
the righteousness of Christ is ours by communication, and life 
as its consequence, it is equally evident that both were lost in 
Adam, in the same manner in which they were recovered in 
Christ, and that sin and death were introduced by Adam, in the 
same manner in which they are abolished by Christ. There is 
no obscurity in the declaration that many are made righteous 
by the obedience of Christ, (y) as they had been made sinners 
by the disobedience of Adam. And, therefore, between these 
tivo persons there is this relation, that the one ruined us by in- 
volving us in his destruction, the other by his grace has restored 
us to salvation. Any more prolix or tedious proof of a truth 
supported by such clear evidence must, I think, be unnecessary. 
Thus also in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, with a view to 
confirm the pious in a confidence of the resurrection, he shows, 
that the life which had been lost in Adam, was recovered in 
Christ. (z) He, who pronounces that we were all dead in 
Adam, does also at the same time plainly declare, that we were 
implicated in the guilt of his sin. For no condemnation could 
reach those who were perfectly clear from all charge of iniquity. 
But his meaning cannot be better understood than from the re- 
lation of the other member of the sentence, where he informs 
us that-the hope of life is restored in Christ. But that is well 
known to be accomplished, only when Christ, by a wonderful 
communication, transfuses into us the virtue of his righteous- 
ness; as it is elsewhere said, “The Spirit is life, because of 
righteousness.” (a) No other explanation therefore can be 
given of our being said to be dead in Adam, than that his trans- 
gression not only procured misery and ruin for himself, but also 
precipitated our nature into similar destruction. And that not 
by his personal guilt as an individual, which pertains not to us, 
but because he infected all his descendants with the corruption 
into which he had fallen. Otherwise there would be no truth in 
the assertion of Paul, that all are by nature children of wrath, (b) 


(z) Rom. v. 12. (y) Rom. vy. 19. (z) 1 Cor. xv. 22. 
(a) Rom. viii. 10 (b) Ephes. ii. 3. 


228 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 1 


if they had not been already under the curse even before 
their birth. Now, it is easily inferred that our nature is there . 
characterized, not as it was created by God, but as it was vitia- 
ted in Adam; because it would be unreasonable to make God 
the author of death. Adam, therefore, corrupted himself in such 
a manner, that the contagion has been communicated from him 
to all his offspring. And Christ himself, the heavenly Judge, 
declares, in the most unequivocal terms, that all are born in a 
‘state of pravity and corruption, when he teaches, that ‘‘ what- 
soever is born of the flesh is flesh,” (¢c) and that, therefore, the 
gate of life is closed against all who have not been regenerated. 

VII. Nor, to enable us to understand this subject, have we 
any need to enter on that tedious dispute, with which the 
fathers were not a little perplexed, whether the soul of a son 
proceeds by derivation or transmission from the soul of the fa- 
ther, because the soul is the principal seat of the pollution. We 
ought to be satisfied with this, that the Lord deposited with 
Adam the endowments he chose to confer on the human nature ; 
and therefore that when he lost the favours he had received, he 
lost them not only for himself, but for us all. Who will be 
solicitous about a transmission of the soul, when he hears that 
Adam received the ornaments that he lost, no less for us than 
for himself? that they were given, not to one man only, but to 
the whole human nature? There is nothing absurd therefore, 
if, in consequence of his being spoiled of his dignities, that 
nature be destitute and poor; if, in consequence of his be- 
ing polluted with sin, the whole nature be infected with the 
contagion. From a putrefied root, therefore, have sprung putrid 
branches, which have transmitted their putrescence to remoter 
ramifications. For the children were so. vitiated in their parent, 
that they became contagious to their descendants: there was in 
Adam such a spring of corruption, that it is transfused from 
parents to children in a perpetual stream. But the cause of the 
contagion is not in the substance of the body or of the soul; 
but because it was ordained by God, that the gifts which he 
conferred on,the first man should by him be preserved or lost 
both for himself and for all his posterity. But the cavil of the 
Pelagians, that it is improbable that children should derive cor- 
ruption from pious parents, whereas they ought rather to be 
sanctified by their purity, is easily refuted. For they descend 
from their carnal generation, not from their spiritual generation. 
Therefore, as Augustine says, ‘‘ Neither the guilty unbeliever, 
nor the justified believer, generates innocent, but guilty children, 
because the generation of both is from corrupted nature.” If 
they in some measure participate of the sanctity of their parents, 
that is the peculiar benediction of the people of God, which su- 


(c) John iii. 5, 6. 


cHAP. I.| CHRISTIAN RELIGION. YAS) 


persedes not the first and universal curse previously denounced 
on the human nature. For their guilt is from nature, but their 
sanctification from supernatural grace. 

VIII. T’o remove all uncertainty and misunderstanding on 
this subject, let us define original sin. It is not my intention 
to discuss all the definitions given by writers ; I shall only pro- 
duce one, which I think perfectly consistent with the truth. 
Original sin, therefore, appears to be an hereditary pravity and 
corruption of oir nature, diffused through all the parts of the 
soul, rendering us obnoxious to the Divine wrath, and pro- 
ducing in us those works which the Scripture calls “ works of 
the flesh.” (d) And this is indeed what Paul frequently deno- 
minates stm. 'The works which proceed thence, such as adul- 
teries, fornications, thefts, hatreds, murders, revellings, he calls 
in the same manner “fruits of sin;”’ although they are also 
called “ sins” in many passages of Scripture, and even by him- 
self. ‘These two things therefore should be distinctly observed : 
first, that our nature being so totally vitiated and depraved, we 
are, on account of this very corruption, considered as convicted 
and justly condemned in the sight of God, to whom nothing is 
acceptable but righteousness, innocence, and purity. And this 
liableness to punishment arises not from the delinquency of 
another; for when it is said that the sin of Adam renders us 
obnoxious to the Divine judgment, it is not to be understood 
as if we, though innocent, were undeservedly loaded with the 
guilt of his sin; but, because we are all subject to a curse, in 
consequence of his transgression, he is therefore said to have 
involved us in guilt. Nevertheless we derive from him, not 
only the punishment, but also the pollution to which the pu- 
nishment is justly due. Wherefore Augustine, though he fre- 
quently calls it the sin of another, the more clearly to indicate 
its transmission to us by propagation, yet, at the same time, 
also asserts it properly to belong to every individual. And the 
Apostle himself expressly declares, that ‘death has therefore 
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned ;”’ (e) that is, have 
been involved in original sin, and defiled with its blemishes. 
And therefore infants themselves, as they bring their condem- 
nation into the world with them, are rendered obnoxious to 
punishment by their own sinfulness, not by the sinfulness of 
another. For though they have not yet produced the fruits of 
their iniquity, yet they have the seed of it within them; even 
their whole nature is as it were a seed of sin, and therefore 
cannot but be odious and abominable to God. Whence it fol- 
lows, that it is properly accounted sin in the sight of God, be- 
cause there could be no guilt without crime. ‘The other thing 


(d) Gal v 19. (c) Rom. v. 12. 


930 INSTITUTES OF THE ° [BooK I. 


to be remarked is, that this depravity never ceases in us, but is 
perpetually producing new fruits, those works of the flesh, 
which we have before described, like the emission of flame and 
sparks from a heated furnace, or like the streams of water from 
a never failing spring. Wherefore those who have defined ori- 
ginal sin as a privation of the original righteousness, which we 
ought to possess, though they comprise the whole of the sub- 
ject, yet have not used language sufficiently expressive of its 
operation and influence. For our nature is not only destitute 
of all good, but is so fertile in all evils that it cannot remain in- 
active. 'Those who have called it concuwpiscence have used an 
expression not improper, if it were only added, which is far 
from being conceded by most persons, that every thing in man, 
the understanding and will, the soul and body, is polluted and 
engrossed by this concupiscence ; or, to express it more briefly, 
that man is of himself nothing else but concupiscence. 

IX. Wherefore I have asserted that sin has possessed all the 
powers of the soul, since Adam departed from the fountain of 
righteousness. For man has not only been ensnared by the 
inferior appetites, but abominable impiety has seized the very 
citadel of his mind, and pride has penetrated into the inmost 
recesses of his heart; so that it is weak and foolish to restrict 
the corruption which has proceeded thence, to what are called 
the sensual affections, or to call it an incentive which allures, 
excites, and attracts to sin, only what they style the sensual 
part. In this the grossest ignorance has been discovered by 
Peter Lombard, who, when investigating the seat of it, says that 
it is in the flesh, according to the testimony of Paul, (f) not in- 
deed exclusively, but because it principally appears in the flesh ; 
as though Paul designated only a part of the soul, and not the 
whole of our nature, which is opposed to supernatural grace. 
Now, Paul removes every doubt by informing us that the cor- 
ruption resides not in one part only, but that there is nothing 
pure and uncontaminated by its mortal infection. For, when 
arguing respecting corrupt nature, he not only condemns the in- 
ordinate motions of the appetites, but principally insists on the 
blindness of the mind, and the depravity of the heart; (g) and 
the third chapter of his Epistle to the Romans is nothing but a 
description of original sin. ‘This appears more evident from 
* our renovation. F'or ‘the Spirit,” which is opposed to “ the old 
man ”’ and “the flesh,” not only denotes the grace, which cor- 
rects the inferior or sensual part of the soul, but comprehends 
a complete reformation of all its powers. And therefore Paul 
not only enjoins us to mortify our sensual appetites, but ex- 
norts us to be renewed in the spirit of our mind; (/) and in 


(f) Rom. vii. 18. (g) Ephes. iv. 17,18. (h) Ephes. iv. 23. 


CHAP. 1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 231 


another place he directs us to be transformed by the renewing 
of our mind. (7) Whence it follows, that that part, which prin- 
cipally displays the excellence and dignity of the soul, is not 
only wounded, but so corrupted, that it requires not merely to 
be healed, but to receive a new nature. How far sin occupies 
both the mind and the heart, we shall presently see. My inten- 
tion here was only to hint, in a brief way, that man is so total- 
ly overwhelmed, as with a deluge, that no part is free from sin ; 
and therefore that whatever proceeds from him is accounted sin ; 
as Paul says that all the affections or thoughts of the flesh 
are enmity against God, and therefore death. (/) 

X. Now, let us dismiss those who dare to charge God with 
their corruptions, because we say that men are naturally cor- 
rupt. 'They err in seeking for the work of God in their own 
pollution, whereas they should rather seek it in the nature of 
Adam while yet innocent and uncorrupted. Our perdition 
therefore proceeds from the sinfulness of our flesh, not from 
God; it being only a consequence of our degenerating from 
our primitive condition. And let no one murmur that God 
might have made a better provision for our safety, by prevent- 
ing the fall of Adam. For such an objection ought to be 
abominated, as too presumptuously curious, by all pious minds ; 
and it also belongs to the mystery of predestination, which 
shall afterwards be treated in its proper place. Wherefore let 
us remember, that our ruin must be imputed to the corruption of 
our nature, that we may not bring an accusation against God 
himself, the author of nature. That this fatal wound is inherent 
in our nature, is indeed a truth; but it is an important question, 
whether it was in it originally, or was derived from any extrane- 
ous cause. But it is evident that it was occasioned by sin, 
We have therefore no reason to complain, but of ourselves; 
which in the Scripture is distinctly remarked. For the Preach- 
er says, “ This only have I found, that God hath made man 
upright ; but they have sought out many inventions.’ (/) It 
is clear that the misery of man must be ascribed solely to him- 
self, since he was favoured with rectitude by the Divine good- 
ness, but has lapsed into vanity through his own folly. 

XI. We say, therefore, that man is corrupted by a natural de- 
pravity, but which did not originate from nature. We deny that 
it proceeded from nature, to signify that it is rather an adventi- 
tious quality or accident, than a substantial property originally 
innate. Yet we call it natural, that no one may suppose it to 
be contracted by every individual from corrupt habit, whereas 
it prevails over all by hereditary right. Nor is this representa- 
tion of ours without authority. For the same reason the 


(t) Rom. xii. 2. (k) Rom. viii. 6, 7. (l) Eccles. vii. 29. 


939 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK IL. 


Apostle says, that we are all by nature the-children of wrath. (m) 
How could God, who is pleased with all his meanest works, be 
angry with the noblest of all his creatures? But he is angry 
rather with the corruption of his work, than with his work it- 
self. Therefore, if, on account of the corruption of human na- 
ture, man be justly said to be naturally abominable to God, he 
may also be truly said to be naturally depraved and corrupt ; 
as Augustine, in consequence of the corruption of nature, hesi- 
tates not to call those sins natural, which necessarily predomi- 
nate in our flesh, where they are not prevented by the grace of 
God. Thus vanishes the foolish and nugatory system of 
the Manichzans, who, having imagined in man a substantial 
wickedness, presumed to invent for him a new creator, that 
they might not appear to assign the cause and origin of evil to. 
a righteous God. 


CHAPTER II. 


MAN, IN HIS PRESENT STATE, DESPOILED OF FREEDOM OF WILL, 
AND SUBJECTED TO A MISERABLE SLAVERY. 


Since we have seen that the domination of sin, from the time 
of its subjugation of the first man, not only extends over the 
whole race, but also exclusively possesses every soul, it now re- 
mains to be more closely investigated, whether we are despoiled 
of all freedom, and, if any particle of it yet remain, how far its 
power extends. But, that we may the more easily discover the 
truth of this question, I will first set up by the way a mark, by 
which our whole course must be regulated. ‘The best method 
of guarding against error is to consider the dangers which 
threaten us on every side. For when man is declared to be 
destitute of all rectitude, he immediately makes it an occasion of 
slothfulness ; and because he is said to have no power of him- 
self for the pursuit of righteousness, he totally neglects it, as 
though it did not at all concern him. On the other hand, he 
cannot arrogate any thing to himself, be it ever so little, with- 
out God being robbed of his honour, and himself being endan- 
gered by presumptuous temerity. Therefore, to avoid striking 
on either of these rocks, this will be the course to be pursued — 
that man, being taught that he has nothing good left in his 
possession, and being surrounded on every side with the most 


(m) Ephes. ii. 3. 


CHAP. II. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 233 


miserable necessity, should, nevertheless, be instructed to aspire 
to the good of which he is destitute, and to the liberty of which he 
is deprived ; and should be roused from indolence with more ear- 
nestness, than if he were supposed to be possessed of the greatest 
strength. 'The necessity of the latter is obvious to every one. 
The former, J perceive, is doubted by more than it ought to be. 
For this being placed beyond all controversy, that man must not 
be deprived of any thing that properly belongs to him, it ought 
also to be manifest how important it is that he should be pre- 
vented from false boasting. For if he was not even then per- 
mitted to glory in himself, when by the Divine beneficence he 
was decorated with the noblest ornaments, how much ought he 
now to be humbled, when, on account of his ingratitude, he has 
been hurled from the summit of glory to the abyss of ignominy ! 
At that time, I say, when he was exalted to the most honoura- 
ble eminence, the Scripture attributes nothing to him, but that 
he was created after the image of God; which certainly implies 
that his happiness consisted not in any goodness of his own, 
but in a participation of God. What, then, remains for him now, 
deprived of all glory, but that he acknowledge God, to whose 
beneficence he could not be thankful, when he abounded in the 
riches of his favour? and that he now, at least, by a confession 
of his poverty, glorify him, whom he glorified not by an ac- 
knowledgment of his blessings? It is also no less conducive to 
our ‘nterests than to the Divine glory, that all the praise of 
wisdom and strength be taken away from us; so that they join 

sacrilege to our fall, who ascribe to us any thing more than 
truly belongs to us. For what else is the consequence, when 
we are taught to contend in our own strength, but that we are 
lifted into the air on a reed, which being soon broken, we fall 
to the ground. ‘Though our strength is placed in too favoura- 
ble a point of view, when it is compared toareed. For it is 
nothing but smoke, whatever vain men have imagined and 
pretend concerning it. Wherefore it is not without reason, that 
that remarkable sentence is so frequently repeated by Augustine, 
that free will is rather overthrown than established even by its 
own advocates. It was necessary to premise these things for 
the sake of some, who, when they hear that human power is 
completely subverted in order that the power of God may be 
established in man, inveterately hate this whole argument, as 
dangerous and unprofitable; which yet appears to be highly 
useful to us, and essential to true religion. 

II. As we have just before said that the faculties of the 
soul consist in the mind and the heart, let us now consider the 
ability of each.. The philosophers, indeed, with general con- 
sent, pretend, that in the mind presides Reason, which like a 
‘amp illuminates with its counsels, and like a queen governs 

VOL. I. 30 


D34. INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK 11, 


the will; for that 1t is so irradiated with Divine light as to be 
able to give the best counsels, and endued with such vigour as 
to be qualified to govern in the most excellent manner; that 
| Sense, on the contrary, is torpid and afflicted with weakness of 
sight, so that it always creeps on the ground, and is absorbed 
in the grossest objects, nor ever elevates itself to a view of the 
truth ; that Appetite, if it can submit to the obedience of reason, 
and resist the attractions of sense, is inclined to the practice of 
virtues, travels the path of rectitude, and is formed into will; 
but that, if it be devoted to the servitude of sense, it is thereby 
so corrupted and depraved as to degenerate into lust. /And as, 
according to their opinion, there reside in the soul those facul- 
ties which I have before mentioned, understanding, sense, and 
appetite, or will, — which appellation is now more commonly 
used, — they assert that the understanding is endued with reason, 
that most excellent guide to a good and a happy life, provided it 
only maintains itself in its own excellence, and exerts its innate 
power ; but that the inferior affection of the soul, which is called 
sense, and by which it is seduced into error, is of such a nature 
that it may be tamed and gradually conquered by the rod of 
reason. ‘They place the will in the middle station between 
reason and sense, as perfectly at liberty, whether it chooses to 
obey reason, or to submit to the violence of sense.» 

IIL. Sometimes, indeed, being convinced by the testimony 
of experience, they admit how extremely difficult it is for a 
man to establish within him the kingdom of reason; while he 
is exposed at one time to the solicitations of alluring pleasures, 
at another to the delusions of pretended blessings, and at others 
to the violent agitations of immoderate passions, compared by 
Plato to so many cords dragging him in various directions. 
For which reason Cicero says that the sparks kindled by na- 
ture are soon extinguished by corrupt opinions and evil man-’ 
ners. But when such maladies have once taken possession of 
the human mind, they acknowledge their progress to be too 
violent to be easily restrained ; nor do they hesitate to compare 
them to fierce horses, who, having rejected reason, like horses 
that have thrown off the charioteer, indulge themselves in every 
extravagance, without the least restraint. But they consider it 
as beyond all controversy, that virtue and vice are in our own 
power; for if it be at our election, they say, to do this or that, 
therefore it must also be, to abstain from doing it. And, on the 
other hand, if we are free to abstain from it, we must also be 
free to do it. But we appear freely and voluntarily to do those 
things which we do, and to abstain from those things from 
which we abstain; therefore, if we do any good action, when 
we please we may omit it; if we perpetrate any evil, that a.so 
‘ve may avoid. Moreover, some of them have advanced to such 


cHAP. 11] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 235 


a degree of presumption, as to boast, that we are indebted to 
the gods for our life, but for a virtuous and religious one to 
ourselves; whence also that assertion of Cicero, in the person 
of Cotta, that, simce every man acquires virtue for himself, none 
of the wise men have ever thanked God for it. ‘ For,’ says 
he, “we are praised for virtue, and in virtue we glory; which 
would not be the case, if it were a gift of God, and did not 
originate from ourselves.” And a little after: “This is the 
judgment of all men, that fortune must be asked of God, but 
that wisdom must be derived from ourselves.’’ “This, then, is 
the substance of the opinion of all the philosophers, that the 
reason of the human understanding is sufficient for its proper 
government; that the will, being subject to it, is indeed solicit- 
ed hy sense to evil objects, but, as it has a free choice, there 
can be no impediment to its following reason as its guide in all 
things. 

IV. Among the ecclesiastical writers, though there has not 
been one who would not acknowledge both that human reason 
is grievously wounded by sin, and that the will is very much 
embarrassed by corrupt affections, yet many of them have fol- 
lowed the philosophers far beyond what is right. The early 
fathers appear to me to have thus extolled human power from 

fear lest, if they openly confessed its impotence, they might, 
in the first place, incur the derision of the philosophers, with 
whom they were then contending; and, in the next place, 
might administer to the flesh, of itself naturally too torpid to 
all that is good, a fresh occasion of slothfulness. 'T'o avoid de- 
livering any principle deemed absurd in the common opinion 
of mankind, they made it their study, therefore, to compromise 
between the doctrine of the Scripture and the dogmas of the 
philosophers. Yet it appears from their language, that they 
principally regarded the latter consideration, that they might 
leave no room for slothfulness. Chrysostom says, “ Since God 
has placed good and evil things in our power, he has given 
us freedom of choice ; and he constrains not the unwilling, but 
embraces the willing.” Again: ‘ Oftentimes a bad man, if he 
will, is changed into a good one; and a good one falls into in- 
activity, and becomes bad; because God has given us na- 
turally a tree will, and imposes no necessity upon us, but, 
having provided suitable remedies, permits the event to depend 
entirely on the mind of the patient.’ Again: “ As without 
the assistance of Divine grace we can never do any thing 
aright, so unless we bring what is our own, we shall never be 
able to gain the favour of heaven.” He had before sad, “ That 
it may not be entirely of the Divine assistance, it behoves us 
also to bring something.” And this is an expression very 
familiar with him: “ Let us bring what is ours; God will sup- 


936 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 1. 


ply the rest.” Agreeably to which Jerome says, ‘That it 
belongs to us to begin, and to God to complete ; that it is ours 
to offer what we can, but his to supply our deficiencies.” In 
these sentences you see they certainly attributed to man more 
than could justly be attributed to him towards the pursuit of 
virtue ; because they supposed it impossible to awaken our 
innate torpor, otherwise than by arguing that this alone con- 
stitutes our guilt ; but with what great dexterity they did it, we 
shall see in the course of our work. ‘That the passages which we 
have recited are exceedingly erroneous, will be shortly proved. 
Although the Greeks, beyond all others, and among them parti- 
cularly Chrysostom, have exceeded all bounds in extolling the 
ability of the human will, yet such are the variations, fluctua- 
tions, or obscurities of all the fathers, except Augustine, on 
this subject, that scarcely any thing certain can be concluded 
from their writings. ‘Therefore we shall not scrupulously enu- 
merate the particular opinions of them all, but shall at times 
select from one and another so much as the explication of the 
argument shall appear to require. Succeeding writers, being 
every one for himself ambitious of the praise of subtlety in the 
defence of human nature, gradually and successively fell into 
opinions more and more erroneous; till at length man was 
commonly supposed to be corrupted only in his sensual part, 
but to have his will in a great measure, and his reason entirely, 
unimpaired. In the mean time, it was proclaimed by every 
tongue, that the natural talents in men were corrupted, but the 
supernatural taken away — an expression of Augustine, of the 
import of which scarcely one man in a hundred had the slight- 
est idea. For myself, if I meant clearly to state wherein the 
corruption of nature consists, I could easily content myself 
with this language. But it is of great importance to examine 
with attention what ability is retained by-man in his present 
state, corrupted in all the parts of his nature, and deprived of 
supernatural gifts. This subject, therefore, has been treated in 
too philosophical a manner by those who gloried in being the 
disciples of Christ. For the Latins have always retained the 
term free will, as though man still remained in his primitive 
integrity. And the Greeks have not been ashamed to use an 
expression much more arrogant; for they called it avregoucioy, 
denoting that man possesses sovereign power over himself. 
Since all men, therefore, even the vulgar, are tinctured with 
this principle, that man is endued with free will, and some of 
those who would be thought intelligent know not how far 
this freedom extends, —let us first examine the meaning of the 
term, and then let us describe, according to the simplicity of 
the Scripture, the power which man naturally possesses to do 
either good or evil. What free will is, though the expression 


CHAP. I1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 237 


frequently occurs in all writers, few have defined. Yet Origen 
appears to have advanced a position to which they all assented, 
when he calls it a power of reason to discern good and evil, of 
will to choose either. Nor does Augustine differ from him, 
when he teaches that it is a power of reason and will, by 
which good is chosen when grace assists; and evil, when 
grace is wanting. Bernard, while he affects greater subtlety, 
has expressed himself with more obscurity: he says, it is a 
consent on account of the liberty of will, which cannot be lost, 
and the judgment of reason, which cannot be avoided. The 
definition of Anselm is not sufficiently plain, who states it to 
be a power of preserving rectitude for its own sake. 'There- 
fore Peter Lombard and the schoolmen have rather adopted the 
definition of Augustine, because it was more explicit, and did 
not exclude the grace of God, without which they perceived 
that the will had no power of itself. But they also make such 
additions of their own, as they conceived to be either better, 
or conducive to further explication. Furst, they agree that the 
word arlitrium, will or choice, should rather be referred to rea: 
son, whose office it is to discern between good and evil; and 
that the epithet free belongs properly to the faculty of the will 
which is capable of being inclined to either. Wherefore, since 
liberty belongs properly to the will, Thomas Aquinas says, that 
it would be a very good definition, if free will were called an 
elective power, which, being composed of understanding and ap- 
petite, inclines rather to appetite. We see where they represent 
the power of free will to be placed ; that is, in the reason and 
will. It now remains briefly to inquire how much they attri- 
bute respectively to each. 

V. Common. and external things, which do not pertain to 
the kingdom of God, they generally consider as subject to the 
free determination of man; but true righteousness they refer to 
the special grace of God and spiritual regeneration. With a 
view to support this notion, the author of the treatise ‘On the 
Vocation of the Gentiles” enumerates three kinds of will — the 
first a sensitive, the second an animal, and the third a spiritual 
one; the two former of which he states to be freely exercised 
by us, and the last to be the work of the Holy Spirit in us. 
The truth or falsehood of this shall be discussed in the proper 
place; for my design at present is briefly to recite the opinions 
of others, not to refute them. Hence, when writers treat of 
free will, their first inquiry respects not its ability in civil 
or external actions, but its power to obey the Divine law. 
Though I confess the latter to be the principal question, yet I 
think the other ought not to be wholly neglected; and for this 
opinion I hope to give a very good reason. But a distinction 
has prevailed in the schools, which enumerates three kinds of 


238 INSTITUTES OF THE | [Book 11, 


liberty —the first, freedom from necessity, the second, freedom 
from sin, the third, freedom from misery; of which the first is 
naturally inherent in man, so that nothing can ever deprive 
him of it: the other two aré lost by sin. This distinction I 
readily admit, except that it improperly confounds necessity 
with coaction. And the wide difference between these things, 
with the necessity of its being considered, will appear in another 
lace. 

VI. This being admitted will place it beyond all doubt, that 
man is not possessed of free will for good works, unless he be 
assisted by grace, and that special grace which is bestowed on the 
elect alone in regeneration. For I stop not to notice those fana- 
tics, who pretend that grace is offered equally and promiscuously 
to all. But it does not yet appear, whether he is altogether 
deprived of power to do good, or whether he yet possesses some 
power, though small and feeble ;. which of itself can do nothing, 
but by the assistance of grace does also perform its part. Lom- 
bard, in order to establish this notion, informs us that two sorts of 
grace are necessary to qualify us for the performance of good 
works. One he calls operative, by which we efficaciously will 
what is good; the other codperative, which attends as auxi- 
liary toa good will. ‘This division I dishke, because, while he 
attributes an efficacious desire of what is good to the grace of 
God, he insinuates that man has of his own nature antecedent, 
though ineffectual, desires after what is good; as Bernard as- 
serts that a good will is the work of God, but yet allows that. 
man is self-impelled to desire such a good will. But this is 
very remote from the meaning of Augustine, from whom, how- 
ever, Lombard would be thought to have borrowed this division. 
The second part of it offends me by its ambiguity, which has 
produced a very erroneous interpretation. For they have sup- 
posed that we codperate with the second sort of Divine grace, 
because we have it in our power either to frustrate the first 
sort by rejecting it, or to confirm it by our obedience to it. 
The author of the treatise “On the Vocation of the Gentiles ”” 
expresses it thus—that those who have the use of reason and 
judgment are at liberty to depart from grace, that they may be 
rewarded for not having departed, and that what is impossible 
without the cooperation of the Spirit, may be imputed to their 
merits, by whose will it might have been prevented. ‘These 
two things I have thought proper to notice as I proceed, that 
the reader may perceive how much I dissent from the sounder 
schoolmen. For I differ considerably more from the later 
sophists, as they have departed much further from the judg- 
ment of antiquity. However, we understand from this divi- 
sion, in what sense they have ascribed free will to man. For 
Lombard at length pronounces, that we are not therefore pos- 


CHAP. i. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 239 


sessed of free will, because we have an equal power to do or 
to think either good or evil, but only because we are free from 
constraint. And this liberty is not diminished, although we 
are corrupt, and the slaves of sin, and capable of doing nothing 
but sin. 

VII. Then man will be said to possess free will in this 
sense, not that he has an equally free election of good and evil, 
but because he does evil voluntarily, and not by constraint. 
That, indeed, is very true; but what end could it answer to 
decorate a thing so diminutive with a title so superb? Egre- 
gious liberty indeed, if man be not compelled to serve sin, but 
yet is such a willing slave, that his will is held in bondage by 
the fetters of sin. I really abominate contentions about words, 
which disturb the Church without producing any good effect ; 
but I think that we ought religiously to avoid words which 
signify any absurdity, particularly when they lead to a perni- 
cious error. How few are there, pray, who, when they-hear 
free will attributed to man, do not immediately conceive, that 
he has the sovereignty over his own mind and will, and is 
able by his innate power to incline himself to whatever he 
pleases? But it will be said, all danger from these expressions 
will be removed, if the people are carefully apprized of their 
signification. But, on the contrary, the human mind is natu- 
rally so prone to falsehood, that it will sooner imbibe error from 
one single expression, than truth from a prolix oration; of 
which we have a more certain experiment than. could be 
wished in this very word. For neglecting that explanation of 
the fathers, almost all their successors have been drawn into a 
fatal self-confidence, by adhering to the original and proper 
signification of the word. 

VIII. But if we regard the authority of the fathers — though 
they have the term continually in their mouths, they at the 
same time declare with what extent of signification they use 
it. First of all, Augustine, who hesitates not to call the will a 
slave. He expresses his displeasure in one place against those 
who deny free will; but he declares the principal reason for it, 
when he says, ‘‘ Only let no man dare so to deny the freedom 
of the will, as to desire to excuse sin.” Elsewhere he plainly 
confesses, that the human will is not free without the Spirit, 
since it is subject to its lusts, by which it is conquered and 
bound. Again: that when the will was overcome by the 
sin into which it fell, nature began to be destitute of liberty. 
Again: that man, having made a wrong use of his free will, lost 
both it and himself. Again: that free will is in a state of cap- 
tivity, so that it can do nothing towards righteousness. Again: 
that the will cannot be free, which has not been liberated by 
Divine grace. Again: that the Divine justice is not fulfilled, 


240 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK IL, 


while the law commands, and man acts from his own strength; 
but when the Spirit assists, and the human will obeys, not as 
being free, but as liberated by God. And he briefly assigns 
the cause of all this, when, in another place, he tells us, that 
man at his creation received great strength of free will, but 
lost it by sin. Therefore, having shown that free will is the 
result of grace, he sharply inveighs against those who arrogate 
it to themselves without grace. ‘‘ How, then,” says he, “‘do 
miserable men dare to be proud of free will, before they are 
liberated, or of their own strength, if they have been liberated ? ” 
Nor do they consider that the term free will signifies liberty. 
But ‘“‘ where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (m) If, 
therefore, they are the slaves of sin, why do they boast of free 
will? ‘For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he 
brought in bondage.” (0) But if they have been liberated, 
why do they boast as of their own work? Are they so much 
at liberty as to refuse to be the servants of him who says, 
‘Without me ye can do nothing”? (p) Besides, in another 
place, also, he seems to discountenance the use of that expres- 
sion, when he says that the will is free, but not liberated ; free 
from righteousness, enslaved to sin. This sentiment he also 
repeats and applies in another place, where he maintains that 
man is not free from righteousness, but by the choice of his 
will, and that he is not made free from sin, but by the grace 
of the Saviour. He who declares that human liberty is no- 
thing but an emancipation or manumission from righteousness, 
evidently exposes it to ridicule as an unmeaning term. ‘There- 
fore, if any man allows himself the use of this term without 
any erroneous signification, he will not be troubled by me on 
that account: but because I think that it cannot be retained 
without great danger, and that, on the contrary, its abolition 
would be very beneficial to the Church, I would neither use 
it myself, nor wish it to be used by others who may consult 
my opinion. 

IX. Perhaps I may be thought to have raised a great pre- 
judice against myself, by confessing that all the ecclesiastical 
writers, except Augustine, have treated this subject with such 
ambiguities or variations, that nothing certain can be learned 
from their writings. For some will interpret this, as though 1 
intended to deprive them of the right of giving their suffrages, 
because their opinions are all adverse to mine. But I have 
had no other object in view than simply and faithfully to con- 
sult the benefit of pious minds, who, if they wait to discover 
the sentiments of the fathers on this subject, will fluctuate in 
perpetual uncertainty. At one time they teach man, despoiled 


(n) 2 Cor. iii. 17. (0) 2 Peter ii. 19. _ (p) John xv. 5. 


CHAP. It. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. QA 


of all strength of free will, to have recourse to grace alone; at 
another, they either furnish, or appear to furnish, him with ar- 
mour naturally his own. Yet that, amidst all this ambiguity 
of expression, esteeming the strength of man as little or no- 
thing, they have ascribed the praise of every thing that is good 
entirely to the Holy Spirit, is not difficult to prove, if I intro- 
duce some passages from them, in which this sentiment is clearly 
maintained. For what is the meaning of that assertion of Cy- 
prian, so frequently celebrated by Augustine, ‘'That we ought 
to glory in nothing, because we have nothing of our own;” 
but that man, completely impoverished in himself, should learn 
to depend-entirely on God? What is the meaning of that ob- 
servation of Augustine and Eucherius, when they represent 
Christ as the tree of life, to whom whosoever shall have 
stretched forth his hand shall live; and free will as the tree 
of knowledge of good and evil, and say that whosoever for- 
sakes the grace of God and tastes of it shall die? What is the 
meaning of that assertion of Chrysostom, that every man by 
nature’is not only a sinner, but altogether sin? If we have not 
one good quality, if from his head to his feet man be entirely 
sin, if it be wrong even to try how far the power of the will 
extends, — how, then, can it be right to divide the praise of a 
good work between God and man? [could introduce many 
such passages from other fathers; but lest any one should 
cavil, that I select only those things which favour my own 
cause, but artfully omit those which oppose it, I refrain from 
such a recital. I venture to affirm, however, that though they 
sometimes too highly extol free will, yet their design was to 
teach man to discard all reliance on his own power, and to 
consider all his strength as residing in God alone. I now pro- 
ceed to a simple explication of the truth in considering the 
nature of man. 

X. But I am obliged to repeat here, what I premised in the 
beginning of this chapter —that he who feels the most conster- 
nation, from a consciousness of his own calamity, poverty, 
nakedness, and ignominy, has made the greatest proficiency 
in the knowledge of himself. For there is no danger that 
man will divest himself of too much, provided he learns that 
what is wanting in him may be recovered in God. But he 
cannot assume to himself even the least particle beyond his 

just right, without ruining himself with vain confidence, and 
‘incurring the guilt of enormous sacrilege, by transferring to 
himself the honour which belongs to God. And whenever 
our minds are pestered with this cupidity, to desire to have 
something of our own, which may reside in ourselves rather 
than in God, we may know that this idea is suggested by the . 
same counsellor, who excited in our first parents the desire of 
SeevoL.,. I. ol 


QA2, INSTITUTES OF THE | [Boor 4: 


resembling ‘gods, knowing good and evil.” (q) If that term 
be diabolical, which exalts man in his own opinion, let us not 
admit it, unless we wish to take the counsel of an enemy. It 
is pleasant, indeed, to have so much innate strength as to confide 
in and be satisfied with ourselves. But from being allured 
into this vain confidence, let us be deterred by the many 
awful sentences which severely humble us to the dust; such 
as “Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh 
his arm.” (r) Again: ‘God delighteth not in the strength of 
the horse ; he taketh not pleasure in the legs of aman. ‘The 
Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope 
in his mercy.” (s) Again: “He giveth power to the faint; 
and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even 
the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall 
utterly fall; but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew 
their strength.”’(¢) The tendency of all which is to prevent 
us from depending, in the smallest degree, on our own 
strength, if we wish God to be propitious to us, who ‘re- 
sisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.” (v) 
Then let us remember these promises; ‘I will pour water 
upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground :” (w) 
again; “Ho! every one that thirsteth, come ye to the 
waters:”(«) which declare, that none are admitted to a 
participation of the blessings of God, but those who are pi- 
ning away witha sense of theirown poverty. Nor should such 
promises as this of Isaiah be overlooked: ‘The sun shall be 
no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the 
moon give light unto thee; but the Lord shall be unto thee 
an everlasting light.” (y) The Lord certainly does not deprive 
his servants of the splendour of the sun or of the moon; but 
because he will appear exclusively glorious in them, he ‘calls 
off their confidence to a great distance, even from those things 
which in their opinion are the most excellent. 

XI. I have always, indeed, been exceedingly pleased with 
this observation of Chrysostom, that humility is the foundation 
of our philosophy ; but still more with this of Augustine. 
‘As a rhetorician,” says he, “on being interrogated what was 
the first thing in the rules of eloquence, replied, ‘ Pronuncia- 
tion;’ and on being separately interrogated what was the 
second, and what was the third, gave the same reply; so, 
should any one interrogate me concerning the rulés of the 
Christian religion, the first, second, and third, I would always 
reply, Humility.”” Now, he does not consider it as humility, 
when a man, conscious to himself of some little power, abstains 


(q) Gen. ini. 5. (t) Isaiah xl. 29—31. (z) Isaiah lv. 1. 
(r) Jer. xvii. 5. (v) James iv. 6. (y) Isaiah lx. 16. 
(s) Psalm cxlvii. 10 (w) Isaiah xliv. 3. : 


CHAP. I1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. IAS 


_ from pride and haughtiness ; but when he truly feels his con- 
dition to be such that he has no refuge but in humility, as he 
elsewhere declares. ‘‘ Let no man,” says he, “flatter himself: 
of himself he is a devil: every blessing he enjoys is only from 
God. For what have you that is your own, but sin? Take 
to yourself sin, which is your own; for righteousness be- 
longs to God.” Again: ‘Why do men so presume on the 
ability of nature? It is wounded, maimed, distressed, and ruined. 
It needs a true confession, not a false defence.” Again: 
“When every one knows, that in himself he is nothing, and 
that he cannot assist himself, the arms are broken within him, 
and the contentions are subsided.’”’ But it is necessary that all 
the weapons of impiety should be broken in pieces and con- 
sumed, that you may remain unarmed, and have no help in 
yourself. ‘The greater your weakness is in yourself, so much 
the more the Lord assists you. So in the seventieth Psalm he 
forbids us to remember our own righteousness, that we may know 
the righteousness of God ; and shows that God so recommends 
his grace to us, that we may know that we are nothing, and are 
solely dependent on the Divine mercy, being of ourselves alto- 
getherevil. Here, then, let us not contend with God concerning 
our right, as though what is attributed to him were deducted 
‘from our welfare. For as our humility is his exaltation, so the 
confession of our humility has an immediate remedy in his 
commiseration. Now, I do not expect that a man unconvinced 
should voluntarily submit, and, if he has any strength, with- 
draw his attention from it to be reduced to true humility ; but 
I require, that, discarding the malady of self-love and love of 
strife, which blinds him, and leads him to entertain too high 
an opinion of himself, he should seriously contemplate himself 
in the faithful mirror of the Scripture. 

XII. And, indeed, I much approve of that common observa- 
tion which has been borrowed from Augustine, that the na- 
tural talents in man have been corrupted by sin, but that of 
the supernatural ones he has been wholly deprived. For by 
the latter are intended, both the light of faith and righteous- 
ness, which would be sufficient for the attainment of a hea- 
venly life and eternal felicity. Therefore, when he revolted 
from the Divine government, he was at the same time deprived 
of those supernatural endowments, which had been given him 
for the hope of eternal salvation. Hence it follows, that he is 
exiled from the kingdom of God, in such a manner, that all 
the affections relating to the happy life of the soul, are also 
extinguished in him, till he recovers them by the grace of re- 
generation. Such are faith, love to God, charity towards our ~ 
neighbours, and an attachment to holiness and righteousness.- 
All these things, being restored by Christ, are esteemed ad. 


DAA, INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK II. 


ventitious and preternatural ; and therefore we conclude that 
they had been lost. Again, soundness of mind and rectitude 
of heart were also destroyed ; and this is the corruption of the 
natural talents. For although - we retain some portion of un- 
derstanding and judgment together with the will, yet we can- 
not say that our mind is perfect and sound, which is oppressed 
with debility and immersed in profound darkness; and the 
depravity of our will is sufficiently known. Reason, therefore, 
by which man distinguishes between good and evil, by which 
he understands and. judges, being a natural talent, could not 
be totally destroyed, but is partly debilitated, partly vitiated, 
so that it exhibits nothing but deformity and ruin. In this 
sense John says, that “the hght” still ‘‘shineth in darkness,’ 
but that “ the darkness comprehendeth it not.” (z) In this pas- 
sage both these ideas are clearly expressed — that some sparks 
continue to shine in the nature of: man, even in its corrupt and 
degenerate state, which prove him. to be a rational creature, 
and different from the brutes, because he is endued with un- 
derstanding ; and yet that this light is smothered by so much 
ignorance, that it cannot act with any degree of efficacy. So 
the will, being inseparable from the nature of man, is not an- 
nihilated : but it is fettered by depraved and inordinate desires, 
so that it cannot aspire after any thing that is good. This, 
indeed, is a complete definition, but requires more diffuse ex- 
plication. ‘Therefore, that the order of our discourse may pro- 
ceed according to the distinction we have stated, in which we 
divided the soul into understanding and will, let us first exa- 
mine the power of the understanding. ‘'T’o condemn it to per- 
petual blindness, so ds to leave it no intelligence in any thing, 
is repugnant, not only to the Divine word, but also to the ex- 
perience of common sense. For we perceive in the mind of 
man some desire of investigating truth, towards which he 
would have no inclination, but from some relish of it previous- 
ly possessed®, It therefore indicates some perspicuity in the 
human understanding, that it is attracted with a love of truth ; 
the neglect of which in the brutes argues gross sense without 
reason ; although this desire, small as it is, faints even before 
its entrance on its course, because it immediately terminates 
in vanity. For the dulness of the human mind renders it in- 
capable of pursuing the right way of investigating the truth ; 
it wanders through a variety of errors, and groping, as it were, 
in the shades of darkness, often stumbles, till at length it is 
lost in its wanderings ; thus, in its search after truth, it betrays 
its incapacity to seek-and find it. It also labours under another 
grievous malady, frequently not discerning what those things 
are, the true knowledge of which it would be proper to attain, 


(z) John i. 5. 


cHaP. I] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. AD 


and therefore torments itself with a ridiculous curiosity in 
fruitless and unimportant inquiries. T'o things most necessary 
to be known it either never adverts, or contemptuously and 
rarely digresses; but scarcely ever studies them with serious 
application. ‘This depravity being a common subject of com- 
plaint with heathen writers, all men are clearly proved to have 
been implicated in it. Wherefore Solomon, in his Ecclesiastes, 
after having enumerated those pursuits in which men consider 
themselves as displaying superior wisdom, concludes with pro- 
nouncing them to be vain and frivolous. 

XIil. Yet its attempts are not always so fruitless, but that 
it makes some discoveries, particularly when it applies itself to 
inferior things. Nor is it so stupid, as to be without some 
slender notion also of superior ones, however negligently it 
attends to the investigation of them; but it possesses not an 
equal ability for both. For it is when it goes beyond the 
limits of the present life, that it is chiefly convinced of its own 
imbecility. Wherefore, that we may better perceive how far it 
proceeds in every case according to the degrees of its ability, 
it will be useful for us to propose the following distinction ; 
that there is one understanding for terrestrial things, and another 
for celestial ones. I call those things terrestrial which do not 
pertain to God and his kingdom, to true righteousness, or to 
the blessedness of a future hfe; but which relate entirely to 
the present life, and are in some sense confined within the 
limits of it. Celestial things are the pure knowledge of God, 
the method of true righteousness, and the mysteries of the 
heavenly kingdom. In the first class are included civil polity, 
domestic economy, all the mechanical arts and liberal sciences ; 
in the second, the knowledge of God and of the Divine will, 
and the rule for conformity to it in our lives. Now, in regard 
to the first class, it must be confessed, that as man is naturally 
a creature inclined to society, he has also by nature an in- 
stinctive propensity to cherish and preserve that society ; and 
therefore we perceive in the minds of all men general impres- 
sions of civil probity and order. Hence it is that not a person 
can be found who does not understand, that all associations of 
men ought to be governed by laws, or who does not conceive 
in his mind the principles of those laws. Hence that perpetual 
consent of all nations, as well as all individuals, to the laws, 
because the seeds of them are innate in all mankind, without 
any instructor or legislator. I regard not the dissensions and 
contests which afterwards arise, while some desire to invert all 
justice and propriety, to break down the barriers of the laws, 
and to substitute mere cupidity in the room of justice, as is 
the case with thieves and robbers. Others — which is a fault 
more common — think that unjust which legislators have sanc- 


DAG INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK 11. 
tioned as just; and, on the contrary, pronounce that to be 
laudable which they have forbidden. For the former of these 
hate not the laws from an ignorance that they are good and 
sacred ; but, inflamed with the violence of their passions, ma- 
nifestly contend against reason, and under the influence of their 
lawless desires, execrate that which their judgments approve. 
The controversy of the latter of these is by no means repug- 
nant to that original idea of equity which we have mentioned ; 
for when men dispute with each other on the comparative 
merits of different laws, it implies their consent to some ge- 
neral rule of equity. This clearly argues the debility of the 
human mind, which halts and staggers even when it appears 
to follow the right way. Yet it is certainly true, that some 
seeds of politicai order are sown in the minds of all. And 
this is a powerful argument, that in the constitution of this life 
no man is destitute of the light of reason. 

XIV. Next follow the arts, both liberal and manual; for 
learning which, as there is in all of us a certain aptitude, they 
also discover the strength of human ingenuity. But though 
all men are not capable of learning every art, yet it is a very 
sufficient proof of the common energy, that scarcely an indi- 
vidual can be found, whose sagacity does not exert itself in 
some particular art. Nor have they an energy and facility 
only in learning, but also in inventing something new in every 
art, or in amplifying and improving what they have learned 
from their predecessors. Though this excited Plato errone- 
ously to assert that such an apprehension is only a recollectior 
of what the soul knew in its preéxistent state, before it came 
into the body, it constrains us, by the most cogent reasons, to* 
acknowledge that the principle of it is innate in the human 
mind. ‘These instances, therefore, plainly prove, that men are 
endued with a general apprehension of reason and understand- 
ing. Yet it is such a universal blessing, that every one for 
himself ought to acknowledge it as the peculiar favour of God. 
To this gratitude the Author of nature himself abundantly ex- 
cites us, by his creation of idiots, in whom he represents the 
state of the human soul without his illumination, which, 
though natural to all, is nevertheless a gratuitous gift of his 
beneficence towards every individual. But the invention and 
methodical teaching of these arts, and the more intimate and 
excellent knowledge of them, which is peculiar to a few, are no 
solid argument of general perspicacity ; yet, belonging to both 
the pious and the impious, they are justly numbered among the 
natural talents. 

XV. Whenever, therefore, we meet with heathen writers. let 
us learn from that light of truth which is admirably displayed 
jn their works, that the human mind, fallen as it is, and eor- 


cHaP. u.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. QA7 


rupted from its integrity, is yet invested and adorned by God with 
excellent talents. If we believe that the Spirit of God is the 
only fountain of truth, we shall neither reject nor despise the 
truth itself, wherever it shall appear, unless we wish to insult 
the Spirit of God; for the gifts of the Spirit cannot be under- 
valued without offering contempt and reproach to the Spirit 
himself. Now, shall we deny the light of truth to the ancient 
lawyers, who have delivered such just principles of civil order 
and polity? Shall we say that the philosophers were blind in 
their exquisite contemplation and in their scientific description 
of nature? Shall we say that those, who by the art of logic 
have taught us to speak in a manner consistent with. reason, 
were destitute of understanding themselves? Shall we accuse 
those of insanity, who by the study of medicine have been 
exercising their industry for our advantage? What shal] we 
say of all the mathematics? Shall we esteem them the deliri- 
ous ravings of madmen? On the contrary, we shall not be 
able even to read the writings of the ancients on these subjects 
without great admiration; we shall admire them, because we 
shall be constrained to acknowledge them to be truly excellent. 
And shall we esteem any thing laudable or excellent, which 
we do not recognize as proceeding from God? Let-us, then, be 
ashamed of such great ingratitude, which was not to be charged 
on the heathen poets, who confessed that philosophy, and le- 
gislation, and useful arts, were the inventions of their gods. 
Therefore, since it appears that those whom the Scripture 
styles “natural men,” vyimoug, have discovered such acuteness 
and perspicacity in the investigation of sublunary things, let us 
learn from such examples, how many good qualities the Lord 
has left to the nature of man, since it has been despoiled of 
what is truly good. 

XVI. Yet let us not forget that these are most excellent gifts 
of the Divine Spirit, which for the common benefit of mankind 
he dispenses to whomsoever he pleases. For if 1t was neces- 
sary that.the Spirit of God should infuse into Bezaleel and 
Aholiab the understanding and skill requisite for the construc- 
tion of the tabernacle, (a) we need not wonder if the know- 
ledge of those things, which are most excellent in human life, 
is said to be communicated to us by the Spirit of God. Nor 
is there any reason for inquiring, what intercourse with the 
Spirit is enjoyed by the impious who are entirely alienated 
from God. For when the Spirit of God is said to dwell only 
in the faithful, that is to be understood of the Spirit of sancti- 
fication, by whom we are consecrated.as temples to God him- 
self. Yet it is equally by the energy of the same Spirit, that 


(a) Exod. xxxi. 2—11; xxxv. 30—35. 


QA8 INSTITUTES OF THE * [Boox m. 


God replenishes, actuates, and quickens all creatures, and that, 
according to the property of each species which he has given 
it by the law of creation. Now, if it has pleased the Lord 
that we should be assisted in physics, logic, mathematics, and 
other arts and sciences, by the labour and ministry of the im- 
pious, let us make use of them; lest, if we neglect to use the 
blessings therein freely offered to us by God, we suffer the just 
punishment of our negligence. But, lest any one should sup- 
pose a man to be truly happy, when he is admitted to possess 
such powerful energies for the discovery of truth relating to 
the elements of this world, it must likewise be added, that all 
that faculty of understanding, and the understanding which is 
the consequence of it, is, in the sight of God, a fleeting and 
transitory thing, where there is not a solid foundation of truth. 
For the sentiment of Augustine, with whom, as we have ob- 
served, the Master of the Sentences and the Schoolmen have 
been constrained to coincide, is strictly true — that as the gra- 
tuitous or supernatural gifts were taken away from man after 
the fall, so these natural ones which remained have been cor- 
rupted ; not that they can be defiled in themselves as proceed- 
ing from God, but because they have ceased to be pure to pol- 
luted man, so that he can obtain no praise from them. 

XVII. Let us conclude, therefore, that it is evident in all 
mankind, that reason is a peculiar property of our nature, which 
distinguishes us from the brute animals, as sense constitutes 
the difference between them and things manimate. For 
whereas some are born fools and idiots, that defect obscures 
not the general goodness of God. Such a spectacle should 
rather teach us that what we retain ought justly to be ascribed 
to his indulgence ; because, had it not been for his mercy to us, 
our defection would have been followed by the total destruction 
of our nature. But whereas some excel in penetration, others 
possess superior judgment, and others have a greater aptitude 
to learn this or that art, in this variety God displays his good- 
ness to us, that no one may arrogate to himself as his own 
what proceeds merely from the Divine liberality. For whence 
is it that one is more excellent than another, unless it be to 
exalt in our common nature the special goodness of God, which 
in the preterition of many, proclaims that it is under an obliga- 
tion to none? Moreover, God inspires particular motions ac- 
cording to the vocation of each individual; of which many 
examples occur in the book of the Judges, where the Spirit of 
the Lord is said to ‘‘ come upon ”’ those whom he called to govern 
the people. (b) Finally, in all important actions there is a spe- 
cial instinct ; for which reason it is said that Saul was followed 


(b) Judges vi. 34; xv. 14. 


CHAP. 11] * CHRISTIAN RELIGION. QAI 


by valiant ‘men, ‘‘ whose hearts God had touched.” (¢) And 
Samuel, when he predicts his inauguration into the kingdom, 
thus expresses himself: ‘The Spirit of the Lord will come 
upon thee, and thou shalt be turned into another man.” (d) 
And this is extended to the whole course of his government ; 
as it is afterwards narrated concerning David, that “the Spirit 
of the Lord came upon him from that day forward.” (e) But 
the same expression is used in other places in reference to par- 
ticular impulses. Even in Homer, men are said to excel in 
abilities, not only as Jupiter has distributed to every one, but 
according as he guides him from day to day. And experience 
clearly shows, since the most ingenious and sagacious of man- 
kind frequently stand still in profound astonishment, that the 
minds of men are subject to the power and will of God to 
govern them every moment; for which reason it is said, that 
“he taketh away the heart of the chief people of the earth, 
and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there is no 
way.” (f) Yet in this diversity we perceive some remaining 
marks of the Divine image,swhich distinguish the human race 
in general from all the other creatures. 

XVIII. We now proceed to show what human reason can 
discover, when it comes to the kingdom of God, and to that 
spiritual wisdom, which consists chiefly in three things — to 
know God, his paternal favour towards us, on which depends 
our salvation, and the method of regulating our lives: according 
to the rule of the law. In the two first points, but especially 
in the second, the most sagacious of mankind are blinder than 
moles. I do not deny that some judicious and apposite obser- 
vations concerning God may be found scattered in the writings 
of the philosophers; but they always betray a confused ima- 
gination. ‘The Lord afforded them, as we have before observed, 
some slight sense of his Divinity, that they might not be able 
to plead ignorance as an excuse for impiety, and sometimes 
impelled them to utter things, by the confession of which they 
might themselves be convinced. But they saw the objects 
presented to their view in such a manner, that by the sight 
they were not even directed to the truth, much less did they 
arrive at it; just as a man, who is travelling by night across a 
field, sees the coruscations of lightning extending for a moment 
far and wide, but with-such an evanescent view, that so far 
from being assisted by them in proceeding on his journey, he 
is re-absorbed in the darkness of the night before he can ad-. 
vance a single step. Besides, those few truths, with which 
they, as it were, fortuitously besprinkle their books, with what 
numerous and monstrous falsehoods are they defiled! Lastly, 


(c) 1 Sam. x. 26. (e) 1 Sam. xvi. 13. 
(d) 1 Sam. x. 6. (f) Job xii. 24. Psalm evii. 40. 
32 


VOL. I. 


250 INSTITUTES OF THE ' [Book m. 


they never had the smallest idea of that certainty of the Divine 
benevolence towards us, without which the human understand- 
ing must necessarily be full of immense confusion. Human 
reason, then, neither approaches, nor tends, nor directs its views 
towards this truth, to understand who is the true God, or in 
what character he will manifest himself to us. 

XIX. But because, from our being intoxicated with a false 
opinion of our own perspicacity, we do not without great diffi- 
culty suffer ourselves to be persuaded, that in Divine things 
our reason is totally blind and stupid, it will be better, I think, 
to confirm it by testimonies of Scripture, than to support it by 
arguments. This is beautifully taught by John, in that pas- 
sage which I lately cited, where he says that, from the begin- 
ning, ‘in God was life, and the life was the light of men. 
And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness compre- 
hended it not.” (g) He indicates, indeed, that the soul of man 
is irradiated with a beam of Divine light, so that it is never 
wholly destitute either of some little flame, or at least of a 
spark of it; but he likewise suggests that it cannot compre- 
hend God by that illumination. And this because all his sa- 
gacity; as far as respects the knowledge of God, is mere blind- 
ness. For when the Spirit calls men “darkness,” he at once 
totally despoils them of the faculty of spiritual understanding. 
Wherefore he asserts that believers, who receive Christ, are 
“born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the 
will of man, but of God;”(h) as though he had said that 
the flesh is not capable of such sublime wisdom as to conceive 
of God and Divine things, without being illuminated by the 
Spirit of God; as Christ testified that his being known by 
Peter was owing to a special revelation of the Father. (7) 

XX. Ifwe were firmly persuaded of what, indeed, ought not 
to be questioned, that our nature is destitute of all those things 
which our heavenly Father confers on his elect through the 
Spirit of regeneration, here would be no cause of hesitation. 
For this is the language of the faithful by the mouth of the 
Prophet: ‘‘ With thee is the fountain of life; in thy light we 
shall see light.” (4) The Apostle confirms the same, when he 
says that ‘‘no man can say that Jesus is Lord, but by the Holy 
Ghost.’ (2) And John the Baptist, perceiving the stupidity of 
his disciples, exclaims, that ‘“‘a man can receive nothing except 
it be given him from above.” (m) That by “gift ”’ he intends 
a special illumination, not a common faculty of nature, is evi- 
dent from the complaint which he makes of the inefficacy of 
the many discourses in which he had recommended Christ to 
his disciples. ‘‘I see that words are unavailing to instruct the 


(g) John i. 4. (i) Matt. xvi. 17. (l) 1 Cor. xii. 3 
(hk) John i. 13. (A) Psalm xxxvi. 9. (m) John iii, 27. 


CHAP. 1] © CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 951 


minds of men in Divine things, unless God give them under- 
standing by his Spirit.””, And Moses also, when he reproaches 
the people for their forgetfulness, yet at the same time remarks, 
that they cannot be wise in the mysteries of God but by the 
Divine favour. He says, ‘‘ Thine eyes have seen the signs and 
those great miracles; yet the Lord hath not given you a heart 
to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear.” (7) What more 
would he express, if he had called them blockheads, destitute 
of all understanding in the consideration of the works of God? 
Whence the Lord, by the Prophet, promises, as an instance of 
peculiar grace, that he will give the Israelites ‘‘a heart to 
know ” him; (o) plainly suggesting that the mind of man has 
no spiritual wisdom any further than as it is enlightened by him. 
_ Christ also has clearly confirmed this by his own declaration, 
that no man can come to him, except the Father draw him. (p) 
What! is he not himself the lively image of the Father, repre- 
senting to usall “the brightness of his glory’ ?(q) Therefore, 
he could not better manifest the extent of our capacity for the 
knowledge of God, than when he affirms that we have no 
eyes to behold his image where it is so plainly exhibited. 
What! did he not descend to the earth in order to discover to 
men the will of the Father? And did he not faithfully fulfil 
the object of his mission? He certainly did; but'his preach- 
ing is not at all efficacious, unless the way to the heart be laid 
open by the interna] teaching of the Spirit. ‘Therefore, none 
come to him but they who have heard and learned of the 
Father. What is the nature of this hearing and learning? It 
is when the Spirit, by a wonderful and peculiar power, forms 
the ears to hear and the mind to understand.’y And lest this 
should appear strange, he cites the prophecy of Isaiah, where, 
predicting the restoration of the Church, he says, that all those 
who shall be saved “shall be taught of the Lord.” If God 
there predicts something peculiar concerning his elect, it is 
evident that he speaks not of that kind of instruction which 
is common also to the impious and profane. It must be con- 
cluded, therefore, that there is no admission into the kingdom 
of God, but for him whose mind has been renewed by the 
illumination of the Holy Spirit. But Paul expresses himself 
more clearly than all the others. Having professedly entered 
upon this argument, after he has condemned all human wis- 
dom as folly and vanity, and even reduced it to nothing, 
he comes to this conclusion: ‘The natural man receiveth 
not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness 
unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spirit- 
ually discerned.” (r) Whom does he call the natural man? 


(n) Deut. xxix. 3,4. (0) Jer. xxiv. 7. (p) John vi. 44. 
(q) Heb. i. 3. (r) 1 Cor. ii. 14. 


252 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK I. 


him who depends on the light of nature. He, I say, has no 
apprehension of the mysteries of God. Why so ? because through 
slothfulness he neglects them? Nay, even his utmost en- 
deavours can avail nothing, “‘ because they are spiritually dis- 
cerned.’’ ‘This implies, that being entirely concealed from 
human perspicacity, they are discovered only by the revelation 
of the Spirit; so that where the illumination of the Spirit is 
not enjoyed, they are deemed foolishness itself. He had before 
extolled ‘the things which God hath prepared for them that 
love him” (s) above the capacity of our eyes, our ears, and our 
minds; he had even asserted that human wisdom was a kind 
of veil, by which the mind is prevented from a discovery of 
God. What do we want more? ‘The Apostle pronounces that 
‘God hath made foolish the wisdom of this world ;” (¢) and 
shall we ascribe to it such a degree of sagacity, as would ena- 
ble it to penetrate to God, and to the most secret recesses 
of the heavenly kingdom? Far be from us such extreme 
stupidity. 

X XI. That which he here detracts from men, he in another 
place ascribes exclusively to God. Praying for the Ephesians, 
he says, ‘May God, the Father of glory, give unto you the 
Spirit of wisdom and revelation.” (v) You hear now that all 
wisdom and revelation is the gift of God. What follows? 
‘The eyes of your understanding being enlightened.” If they 
need a new revelation, they are certainly blind of themselves. 
It follows, ‘‘ that ye may know what is the hope of your calling,” 
é&c. ‘He confesses, then, that the minds of men are not natural- 
ly capable of so great knowledge, as to know their own calling. 
Nor let any Pelagian here object, that God assists this stupidity 
or ignorance, when, by the teaching of his word, he directs the 
human understanding to that which, without a guide, it never 
could have attained.», For David had the law, in which all desi- 
rable wisdom was comprised: yet, not content with this, he re- 
quested that his eyes might be opened to consider the mysteries of 
that law. (w) By this expression he clearly signifies, that the sun 
arises on the earth, where the word of God shines on mankind ; _ 
but that they derive httle advantage from it, till he himself either 
gives them eyes or opens them, who is therefore called “ the 
Father of lights;’’ (2) because wherever he shines not by his 
Spirit, every thing is covered with darkness. 'Thus also the 
Apostles were rightly and abundantly taught by the best of all 
teachers: yet, if they had not needed the Spirit of truth (y) to 
instruct their minds in that very doctrine which they had pre- 
viously heard, they would not have been commanded to expect 
him. If, in imploring any favour of God, we confess our need, 


(s) 1 Cor. ii. 9. (v) Eph. i. 17. (x) James i. 17. 
(t) 1 Cor. i. 20. (w) Psalm exix. 18. (y) John xvi. 14, 


CHAP. 11. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 653 


and if his promising it argues our poverty, Jet no man hesitate 
to acknowledge, that he is incapable of understanding the 
mysteries of God, any further than he has been illuminated 
by Divine grace. He who attributes to himself more under- 
standing, 1s so much the blinder, because he does not perceive 
and acknowledge his blindness. 

XXII. It remains for us to notice the third branch of know- 
ledge, relating to the rule for the proper regulation of our life, 
which we truly denominate the knowledge of works of right- 
eousness; in which the human mind discovers somewhat 
more acuteness than in the two former particulars. For the 
Apostle declares, that ‘‘ when the Gentiles, which have not the 
law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having 
not the law, are a law unto themselves; which show the work 
of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bear- 
ing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else 
excusing one another.’ (z) If the Gentiles have naturally the 
righteousness of the law engraven on their minds, we certainly 
cannot say that they are altogether ignorant how they ought 
to live. And no sentiment is more commonly admitted, than 
that man is sufficiently instructed in a right rule of life by that 
natural law of which the Apostle there speaks. But let us ex- 
amine for what purpose this knowledge of the law was given 
to men; and then it will appear how far it can conduct them 
towards the mark of reason and truth. ‘This is evident also 
from the words of Paul, if we observe the connection of the 
passage. He had just before said, “‘As many as have sinned 
without law, shall also perish without law; and as many as 
have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law.” Because 
it might appear absurd that the Gentiles should perish without 
any previous knowledge, he immediately subjoins that their 
conscience supplies the place of a law to them, and is there- 
fore sufficient for their just condemnation. The end of the 
law of nature, therefore, is, that man may be rendered inexcu- 
sable. Nor will it be improperly defined in this manner — That 
it isa sentiment of the conscience sufficiently discerning be- 
tween good and evil, to deprive men of the pretext of ignorance, 
while they are convicted-even by their own testimony. ‘Such 
is the indulgence of man to himself, that in the perpetration of 
evil actions he always gladly diverts his mind as much as he 
possibly can from all sense of sin; which seems to have in- 
duced Plato to suppose, that no sin is committed but through 
ignorance. ‘This remark of his would be correct, if the hy 
pocrisy of men could go so far in the concealment of then 
vices, as that the mind would have no consciousness of its guilt 


(z) Rom. ii. 14, 15. 


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254 > INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK I. 


before God. But since the sinner, though he endeavours to 
evade the knowledge of good and evil imprinted on his mind, 
is frequently brought back to it, and so is not permitted to shut 
his eyes, but compelled, whether he will or not, sometimes to 
open them, there is no truth in the assertion, that he sins only 
through ignorance. 

XXL. Themistius, another philosopher, with more truth, 
teaches that the human understanding is very rarely deceived 
in the universal definition, or in the essence of a thing; but 
that it falls into error, when it proceeds further, and descends 
to the consideration of particular cases. ‘There is no man, 
who, if he be interrogated ina general way, will not affirm 
homicide to be criminal; but he who conspires the death of 
his enemy, deliberates on it as a good action. ‘The adulterer 
will condemn adultery in general; but will privately flatter 
himself in his own. Here lies the ignorance — when a man, 
proceeding to a particular case, forgets the rule which he 
had just fixed as a general position. This subject is very 
excellently treated by Augustine, in his exposition of the first 
verse of the fifty-seventh Psalm. The observation of Themis- 
tius, however, is not applicable to all cases ; for sometimes the 
turpitude of the crime so oppresses the conscience of the sin- 
ner, that, no longer imposing on himself under the false image 
of virtue, he rushes into evil with the knowledge of his mind 
and the consent of his will. This state of mind produced these 
expressions, which we find in a heathen poet: ‘I see the bet- 
ter path, and approve it; I pursue the worse.” Wherefore the 
distinction of Aristotle between incontinence and intemperance 

appears to me to be highly judicious. Where incontinence 
predominates, he says, that by the perturbation of the affections 
/_or passions, the mind is deprived of particular knowledge, so 
that in its own evil actions it observes not that criminality 
which it generally discovers in similar actions committed by 
other persons; and that when the perturbation has subsided, 
penitence immediately succeeds; that intemperance is not ex- 
tinguished or broken by a sense of sin, but, on the contrary, 
obstinately persists in the choice of evil which it has made. 

XXIV. Now, when you hear of a universal judgment in 
man to discriminate between good and evil, you must not 
imagine that it is every where sound and perfect. For if the 
hearts of men be furnished with a capacity of discriminating 
what is just and unjust, only that they may not excuse them- 
selves with the plea of ignorance, it is not at all necessary for 
them to discover the truth in every point ; it is quite sufficient 
if they understand so much that they can avail themselves of 
no subterfuge, but being convicted by the testimony of their 
own conscience, even now begin to tremble at the tribunal of 


oHAP. 11.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. O55 


God. Fand if we will examine our reason by the Divine law, 
which 1s the rule of perfect righteousness, we shall find in how 
many respects it is blind. It certainly is far from reaching the 
principal points in the first table; such as relate to trust in 
God, ascribing to him the praise of goodness and righteousness, 
the invocation of his name, and the true observation of the 
Sabbath.§ What mind, relying on its natural powers, ever 
imagined that the legitimate worship of God consisted in these 
and similar things? For when profane men intend to worship 
God, though they are recalled a hundred times from their vain 
and nugatory fancies, yet they are always relapsing into them 
again. ‘They deny that sacrifices are pleasing to God, unac- 
companied with sincerity of heart; thereby testifying that 
they have some ideas concerning the spiritual worship of God, 
which, nevertheless, they immediately corrupt by their false in- 
ventions. For it is impossible ever to persuade them that 
every thing is true which the law prescribes concerning it. 
Shall I say that the mind of man excels in discernment, which 
can neither understand of itself, nor hearken to good instruc- 
tions? Of the precepts of the second table it has a little 
clearer understanding, since they are more intimately con- 
nected with the preservation of civil society among men. 
Though even here it is sometimes found to be deficient; 
for to every noble mind it appears very absurd to. submit to an 
unjust and imperious despotism, if it be possible by any means 
to resist it. A uniform decision of human reason is, that it 
is the mark of a servile and abject disposition patiently to bear 
it, and of an honest and ingenuous mind to shake it off. Nor 
is the revenging of injuries esteemed a vice among the phi- 
losophers. But the Lord, condemning such excessive haughti- 
ness of mind, prescribes to his people that patience which is 
deemed dishonourable among men. But in the universal ob- 
servation of the law, the censure of concupiscence wholly 
escapes our notice. For the natural man cannot be brought 
to acknowledge the disorders of his inward affections. ‘The 
light of nature is smothered, before it approaches the first en- 
trance of this abyss. For when the philosophers represent the 
’ mordinate affections of the mind as vices, they intend those 
which appear and manifest themselves in the grosser external 
actions ; but those corrupt desires which more secretly stimu- 
late the mind, they consider as nothing. 

XXV. Wherefore, as Plato has before been deservedly cen- 
sured for imputing all sins to ignorance, so also we must reject 
the opinion of those who maintain that all sins proceed from 
deliberate malice and pravity. For we too much experience how 
frequently we fall into error even when our intention is good. 
Our reason is overwhelmed with deceptions in so many forms, 


256 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 11. 


is obnoxious to so many errors, stumbles at so many impedi- 
ments, and is embarrassed in so many difficulties, that it is 
very far*from being a certain guide. Paul shows its deficiency 
in the sight of the Lord in every part of our life, when he de- 
nies ‘‘ that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as 
of ourselves.” (a) He does not speak of the will or of the 
affections, but he also divests us of every good thought, that 
we may not suppose it possible for our minds to conceive how 
any action may be rightly performed. Are all our industry, 
perspicacity, understanding, and care so depraved, that we 
cannot conceive or meditate any thing that is right in the sight 
of God? ‘To us, who do not contentedly submit to be stripped 
of the acuteness of our reason, which we esteem our most 
valuable endowment, this appears too harsh; but in the esti- 
mation of the Holy Spirit, who knows that all the thoughts 
of the wisest of men are vain, (b) and who plainly pronounces 
every imagination of the human heart to be only evil, (c) such 
a representation is consistent with the strictest truth. If what- 
ever our mind conceives, agitates, undertakes, and performs, 
be invariably evil, how can we entertain a thought of under- 
taking any thing acceptable to God, by whom nothing is ac- 
cepted .but holiness and righteousness? ‘Thus it is evident 
that the reason of our mind, whithersoever it turns, 1s un- 
happily obnoxious to vanity. David was conscious to him- 
self of this imbecility, when he prayed that understanding 
might be given him, to enable him rightly to learn the com- 
mandments of the Lord.(d) For his desire to obtain a 
new understanding implies the total insufficiency of his 
own. And this he does not once, but almost ten times in 
one Psalm he repeats the same petition—a repetition in- 
dicating the greatness of the necessity which urges him 
thus to pray. What David requests for himself alone, 
Paul frequently supplicates for the churches at large. ‘“‘ We 
do not cease to pray for you,” says he, ‘‘and to desire, that 
ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wis- 
dom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy 
of the Lord unto all pleasing.” (e) Whenever he represents 
that as a blessing of God, we should remember that he thereby ° 
testifies it to be placed beyond the ability of man. * Augustine 
so far acknowledges this defect of reason in understanding the 
things of God, that he thinks the grace of illumination no less 
necessary to our minds than the light of the sun to our eyes. 
And not content with this, he subjoins the following correc- 
tion — that we ourselves open our eyes to behold the light, but 
that the eyes of our minds remain shut, unless they are opened 


(a) 2 Cor. iii. 5. (6) Psalm xciv. 11. (c) Gen. vi. 5; viii 21. 
(d) Psalm exix. 34. (e) Col. i. 9. Phil. 1. 4. 


CHAP. It. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. Q57 


by the Lord. 5 Nor does the Scripture teach us that our minds 
are illuminated only on one day, so as to enable them to see 
afterwards without further assistance; for the passtge just 
quoted from Paul(f) relates to continual advances and im- 
provements. ° And this is clearly expressed by David in these 
words: ‘With my whole heart have I sought thee; O let me 
not wander from thy commandments.” For after having been 
regenerated, and made a more than common progress in true 
piety, he still confesses his need of perpetual direction every 
moment, lest he should decline from that knowledge which 
he possessed. ‘Therefore, in another place, he prays for the 
renewal of a right spirit, which he had lost by his sin; (¢) 
because it belongs to the same God to restore that which he 
originally bestowed, but of which we have been for a time 
deprived. 

XXVI. We must now proceed to the examination of the 
will, to which principally belongs the liberty of choice ; for we 
have before seen that election belongs rather to the will than 
to the understanding. In the first place, that the opinion ad- 
vanced by philosophers, and received by general consent, that 
all things, by a natural instinct, desire what is good, may not 
be supposed to prove the rectitude of the human will, let us 
_ observe, that the power of free choice is not to be contemplated 
in that kind of appetite, which proceeds rather from the in- 
clination of the nature than from the deliberation of the mind. 
For even the schoolmen confess that there is no action of free 
choice, but when reason sees and considers the rival objects 
presented to it; meaning that the object of appetite must be 
such as is the subject of choice, and that deliberation precedes 
and introduces choice. And in fact, if you examine the desire 
of good which is natural to man, you will find that he has it 
in common with the brutes. For they also desire to be happy, 
and pursue every agreeable appearance which attracts their 
senses. But man neither rationally chooses as the object of 
his pursuit that which is truly good for him, according to the 
excellency of his immortal. nature, nor takes the advice of 
reason, nor duly exerts his understanding; but withcut 
reason, without reflection, follows his natural inclination, like 
the herds of the field. It is therefore no argument for the 
liberty of the will, that man is led by natural instinct to desire 
that which is good; but it is necessary that he discern what 
is good according to right reason ; that as soon as he knows it, 
he choose it; and as soon as he has chosen it, he pursue it. 
To remove every difficulty, we must advert to two instances 
of false argumentation. For the desire here intended is not a 


(f) Col. i. 9. (g) Psalm li. 10. 
VOL. I. 33 


258 , INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 1+ 


proper motion of the will, but a natural inclination ; and the 
good in question relates not to virtue or righteousness, but to 
condition ; as when we say a man is well or in good health. 
Lastly, though man has the strongest desire after what is good, 
yet he does not pursue it. There is no man to Whom eternal 
felicity is unwelcome, yet no man aspires to it without the 
influence of the Spirit. Since, therefore, the desire of happi- 
ness natural to man furnishes no argument for the liberty of 
the will, any more than a tendency in metals and stones 
towards the perfection of their nature argues liberty in. them, 
let us consider, in some other particulars, whether the will be 
in every part so entirely vitiated and depraved that it can 
produce nothing but what is evil; or whether it retain any 
small part uninjured which may be the source of good 
desires. 

XXVII. Those who attribute it to the first grace of God, 
that we are able to will effectually, seem, on the contrary, to 
imply that the soul has a faculty of spontaneously aspiring to 
what is good, but that it is too weak to rise into a solid af-_ 
fection, or to excite any endeavour. And there is no doubt 
that the schoolmen have in general embraced this opinion, 
which was borrowed from Origen and some of the fathers, 
since they frequently consider man in things purely natural, 
as they express themselves, according to the description given 
by the Apostle in these words: “ The good that I would, I do 
not; but the evil which I would not, that I do. To willis 
present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I 
find not.’ (4) But this is a miserable and complete perversion 
of the argument which Paul is pursuing in that passage. For 
he is treating of the Christian conflict, which he more briefly 
hints at to the Galatians; the conflict which the faithful per- 
petually experience within themselves -in the contention 
between the flesh and the spirit. Now, the spirit is not from 
nature, but from regeneration. But that the Apostle speaks 
concerning the regenerate, is evident from his assertion, 
that in himself dwelt nothing good, being immediately fol- 
lowed by an explanation that he meant it of his flesh. And 
therefore he affirms that it is not he that does evil, but sin 
that dwells in him. What is the meaning of this correction, 
‘in me, that is, in my flesh?” It is as if he had expressed 
himself in the following manner: No good resides in me 
originating from myself, for in my flesh can be found nothing 
that is good. Hence follows that form oF exculpation: “I do 
no evil, but sin that dwelleth in me; ” (7) which is inappli- 
cable to any but the regenerate, who, with the prevailing bias — 


(k) Rom. vii. 18, 19. (i) Rom. vii. 20. 


CHAP. 11. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. , 959 


of their souls, aim at what is good. Now, the conclusion 
which is subjoined places all this in a clear point of view: “I 
delight,” says he, ‘‘in the law of God after the inward man ; 
but I see another law in my members, warring against the law 
of my mind.” (k) Who has such a dissension in himself, but 
he who, being regenerated by the Divine Spirit, carries about 
with him the relics of his flesh? Therefore Augustine, though 
he had at one time supposed that discourse to relate to the 
natural state of man, retracted his interpretation, as false and 
inconsistent. And, indeed, if we allow that men destitute of 
grace have some motions towards true goodness, though ever 
so feeble, what answer shall we give to the Apostle, who de- 
nies that we are sufficient of ourselves to entertain even a good 
thought? (7) What reply shall we make to the Lord, who 
pronounces, by the mouth of Moses, that every imagination of 
the human heart is only evil? (m) Since they have stumbled 
on a false interpretation of one passage, therefore, there is no 
reason why we should dwell on their opinion. Rather let us 
receive this declaration of Christ, ‘‘ Whosoever committeth sin 
is the servant of sin.”’(z) We are all sinners by nature; 
therefore we are all held under the yoke of sin. Now, if the 
whole man be subject to the dominion of sin, the will, which 
is the principal seat of it, must necessarily be bound with the 
firmest bonds. Nor would there otherwise be any consistency 
in the assertion of Paul, ‘‘ that it is God that worketh in us to 
will,” (0) if any will preceded the grace of the Spirit. Fare- 
well, then, all the idle observations of many writers concerning 
preparation ; for although the faithful sometimes petition that 
their hearts may be conformed to the Divine law, as David does 
in many places, (p) yet it should be remarked that even this 
desire of praying originates from God. This we may gather 
from the language of David; for when he wishes a clean heart 
to be created within him, (q) he certainly does not arrogate to 
himself the beginning of such a creation. Let us rather, there- 
fore, attend to this advice of Augustine: ‘‘God will prevent 
you in all things: do you also sometimes prevent his wrath.” 
How? ‘Confess that you have all those things from God; 
that whatever good you have, it is from him; but whatever 
evil, from yourself.”” And a little after, ‘‘ Nothing is ours, 
but sin.” | 


‘k) Rom. vii. 22, 23. (l) 2 Cor. iii. 5. (m) Gen. viii. 21. (n) John viii. 34. 
(o) Phil. 11. 13. (p) Psalm cxix. (q) Psalm li. 10. 


260 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 41. 


CHAPTER III. 


EVERY THING THAT PROCEEDS FROM THE CORRUPT NATURE OF 
MAN WORTHY OF CONDEMNATION. 


Bur man cannot be better known in either faculty of his 
soul, than when he is represented in those characters by which 
the Scripture has distinguished him. If he be completely de- 
scribed in these words of Christ, ‘“* That which is born of the 
flesh is flesh,” (7) as it is easy to prove, it is evident that he is 
a very miserable creature. For, according to the testimony of 
the Apostle, ‘‘to be carnally minded is death, because the 
carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the 
law of God, neither indeed can be.” (s) Is the flesh so per- 
verse, that, with all its affections, it entertains a secret hatred 
against God? that it cannot consent to the righteousness of the 
Divine law? in a word, that it can produce nothing but what 
tends to death? Now, grant, that in the nature of man there 
is nothing but flesh, and elicit any good from it, if you can. 
But the name of flesh, it will be said, pertains only to the 
sensual, and not to the superior faculties of the soul. ‘This is 
abundantly refuted by the words of Christ and of the Apostle. 
For the argument of our Lord is, that man must be born again, 
because he is flesh. He does not teach a new birth in regard 
to the body. Now, a new birth of the soul requires not a cor- 
rection of some portion of it, but an entire renovation. And 
this is confirmed by the antithesis in both places; for there is 
such a comparison between the flesh and the spirit, that there 
is no medium left. ‘Therefore, every thing in man that is not 
spiritual, is, according to this mode of reasoning, denominated 
carnal. But we have nothing of the spirit, except by regene- 
ration. Whatever, therefore, we have from nature is carnal. 
But if on that point there could otherwise be any doubt, we 
have it removed by Paul, when, after a description of the old 
man, which he had asserted to be ‘‘corrupt according to the 
deceitful lusts,” (¢) he directs us to “be renewed in the spirit 
of our mind.” You see that he places unlawful and corrupt 
affections not only in the sensitive part, but also in the mind 
itself, and, therefore, requires a renovation of .it. And, indeed, 
he had just before drawn such a picture of human nature, as 
showed us to be in every part corrupted and depraved. For 
his description of all the Gentiles, as “walking in the vanity 


(r) John iii. 6. (s) Rom. viii. 6, 7. (t) Eph. iv. 22. 23. 


CHAP. 111. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 261 


of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alien- 
ated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in 
them, because of the blindness of their heart,” (v) is undoubt; 
edly applicable to all those whom the Lord has not yet re- 
newed to the rectitude of his wisdom and righteousness. This 
is still more evident from the comparison soon after introduced, 
where he reminds the faithful, that they “have not so learned 
Christ.” For from these words we conclude, that the grace 
of Christ is the only remedy, by which we can be liberated 
from that blindness, and from the evils consequent upon it. 
And this is what Isaiah had prophesied concerning the king- 
dom of Christ, when he predicted that the Lord would be 
‘“‘an everlasting light” to his Church, whilst at the same time 
‘darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people.” (w) 
When he declares, that the light of God will only arise upon the 
Church, beyond the limits of the Church he certainly leaves no- 
thing but darkness and blindness. I will not particularly recite 
all the passages which are to be found, especially in the Psalms 
and in the Prophets, concerning the vanity of man. It is a 
striking observation of David, that ‘‘to be laid in the balance, 
they are altogether lghter than vanity.” (7) It is a severe 
condemnation of his understanding, when all the thoughts 
which proceed from it are derided as foolish, frivolous, mad, 
and perverse. 

If. Equally severe is the condemnation of the heart, when it 
is called “ deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” (y) 
But as I study brevity, I shall be content with citing a single 
passage, which, however, will resemble a very lucid mirror, in 
which we may behold at full length the image of our nature. 
For the Apostle, when he wishes to demolish the arrogance of 
mankind, does it by these testimonies: ‘‘’There is none right- 
eous, no, not one; there is none that understandeth, there is 
none that seeketh after God. ‘They are all gone out of the 
way, they are together become unprofitable ; there is none 
that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepul- 
chre; with their tongues they have used deceit ; the poison 
of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and 
bitterness ; their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and 
misery are in their ways; there is no fear of God before their 
eyes.” (z) In this terrible manner he inveighs, not against 
particular individuals, but against all the posterity of Adam. 
He does not declaim against the depraved manners of one or 
another age, but accuses the perpetual corruption of our nature. 
For his design in that passage is not simply to rebuke men, in 


(:) Ephes. af Vem tor (w) Isaiah Ix. 1, &c. (z) Psalm lxii. 9. 
(y) Jer. xvii. 9. (z) Rom. iii. 10—18. 


ote ¥ 
2 a 


262. INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK ft 


order that they may repent, but rather to teach us that all 
men are overwhelmed with an inevitable calamity, from which 
they can never emerge unless they are extricated by the mercy 
‘of God. As this could not be proved unless it were evinced 
by the ruin and destruction of our nature, he has adduced these 
testimonies, which demonstrate our nature to be totally ruined. 
Let this, then, be admitted, that men are such as they are here 
described, not only by corrupt habits; but also by a depravity 
of nature; for otherwise the reasoning of the Apostle could 
not be supported, ‘‘that there is no salvation for man but from 
the mercy of God; since in himself he is in a ruined and 
desperate condition.” Here I shall not attempt to establish 
the application of the testimonies, to preclude the appearance 
of their being improperly introduced. I shall treat them just 
as if they had been originally uttered by Paul, and not quoted 
from the Prophets. He divests man first of righteousness, that 
is, Integrity and purity, and then .of understanding. Defect 
of understanding is proved by apostasy from God, the seeking 
of whom is the first step in the path of wisdom; but this loss 
must necessarily befall those who have revolted from God. 
He adds, that all have gone out of the way, and are become 
altogether corrupt, that there is not one that does good. 
Then he subjoins the flagitious crimes, with which they, who 
are once abandoned to iniquity, contaminate all the members 
of their bodies. Lastly, he declares them to be destitute of 
the fear of God, the rule by which all our steps ought to be 
directed. If these are the hereditary characters of mankind, 
in vain do we seek in our nature for any thing that is good. 
I grant, indeed, that all these crimes are not exhibited in every 
individual ; yet it cannot be denied that this monster lurks in 
the hearts of all. For as the body, which already contains 
within itself the cause and matter of a disease, although it has 
yet no sensation of pain, cannot be said to enjoy good health, 
neither can the soul be esteemed healthy, while it is full of 
such moral maladies; although this similitude will not corre- 
spond in every particular; for in the body, however diseased, 
there remains the vigour of life; but the soul, immersed in 
this gulf of iniquity, is not only the subject of vices, but to- 
tally destitute of every thing that is good. 

If. A question, nearly the same as we have already an- 
swered, here presents itself to us again. For in all ages there 
have been some persons, who, from the mere dictates of nature, 
have devoted their whole lives to the pursuit of virtue. And 
though many errors might perhaps be discovered in their con- 
duct, yet by their pursuit of virtue they afforded a proof, that 
there was some degree of purity in their nature. The value 
attached to virtues of such a description before God, we shall 


4 


CHAP. I11.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 263 


more fully discuss when we come to treat of the merits of 
works; yet it must be stated also in this place, so far as is ne- 
cessary for the elucidation of the present subject. These ex- 
amples, then, seem to teach us that we should not consider 
human nature to be totally corrupted; since, from its instine- 
tive bias, some men have not only been eminent for noble 
actions, but have uniformly conducted themselves in a most 
virtuous manner through the whole course of their lives. But 
here we ought to remember, that amidst this corruption of 
nature there is some room for Divine grace, not to purify it, 
but internally to restrain its operations. For should the Lord 
permit the minds of all men to give up the reins to every law- 
less passion, there certainly would not be an individual in the 
world, whose actions would not evince all the crimes, for which 
Paul condemns human nature in general, to be most truly ap- 
plicable to him. For can you except yourself from the num- 
ber of those whose feet are swift to shed blood, whose hands 
are polluted with rapine and murder, whose throats are like 
open sepulchres, whose tongues are deceitful, whose lips are 
envenomed, whose works are useless, iniquitous, corrupt, and 
deadly, whose souls are estranged from God, the inmost re- 
cesses of whose hearts are full of pravity, whose eyes are in- 
sidiously employed, whose minds are elated with insolence — 
in a word, all whose powers are prepared for the commission of 
atrocious and innumerable crimes? If every soul be subject 
to all these monstrous vices, as the Apostle fearlessly pro- 
nounces, we clearly see what would be the consequence, if the 
Lord should suffer the human passions to go all the lengths to 
which they are inclined. ‘There is no furious beast, that would 
be agitated with such ungovernable rage; there is no river, 
though ever so rapid and violent, that would overflow its 
boundaries with such impetuosity. In his elect, the Lord 
heals these maladies by a method which we shall hereafter 
describe. In others, he restrains them, only to prevent their 
ebullitions so far as he sees to be necessary for the preservation 
of the universe. Hence some by shame, and some by fear of 
the laws, are prevented from running into many kinds of pol- 
lutions, though they cannot in any great degree dissemble their 
impurity ; others, because they think that a virtuous course of 
life is advantageous, entertain some languid desires after it, 
others go further, and display more than common excellence, 
that by their majesty they may confine the vulgar to their duty. 
Thus God by his providence restrains the perverseness of our 
nature from breaking out into external acts, but does not purify 
it within. 

IV. But it may be said, the difficulty is not yet removed. 
For either we must esteem Camillus to be exactly similar to 


264 ) INSTITUTES OF THE [Book m1. 


Catiline, or in Camillus we shall have an example that nature, 
if it be studiously cultivated, is not altogether destitute of 
goodness. I grant, indeed, that the virtues displayed in Camil-. 
lus were gifts of God, and if considered in themselves, appear 
justly worthy of commendation: but how will they be proofs 
of any natural goodness in him? 'T'o establish this, must we 
not recur to the heart, and argue, that if a natural man was 
eminent for such integrity. of manners, human nature is not 
destitute of ability for the pursuit of virtue? But what if his 
heart was depraved and perverted, and followed any thing 
rather than the path of rectitude? And that it was such, if 
you concede that he was a natural man, is beyond all doubt. 
What ability, then, will you attribute to human nature for the 
pursuit of virtue, if, with the greatest appearance of integrity, 
it is discovered to be always tending to corruption? ‘There- 
fore, as you will not commend a man for virtue, whose vices 
have only counterfeited the external form of virtue, so you 
must not attribute to the human will a power of desiring what 
is right, as long as it continues fixed in its perverseness. ‘The 
most certain and easy solution of this question, however, is, 
that those virtues are not the common properties of nature, but 
the peculiar graces of God, which he dispenses in great variety, 
and in a certain degree to men that are otherwise profane. 
For which reason we hesitate. not, in common speech, to call 
the nature of one man good, and of another depraved. Yet 
we still include both in the universal state of human depravity ; 
but we signify what peculiar grace God has conferred on the 
one, with which he has not deigned to favour the other. 
When he determined to exalt Saul to the kingdom, he made 
him, as it were,a new man; and this is the reason why Plato, 
alluding to the fable of Homer, says, that the sons of kings 
are formed with some distinguishing singularity of character ; 
because God, consulting the benefit of mankind, frequently fur- 
nishes with an heroic natuie those whom he destines to hold 
the reins of empire; and from this source have proceeded all 
the exploits of great heroes which are celebrated in history. 
The same judgment must be formed concerning those also who 
are in a private station. But because every one who has risen 
to great eminence has been impelled by his ambition, which 
defiles all virtues, and deprives them of all excellence in the 
Divine view, whatever may be apparently laudable in ungodly 
linen, ought not to be esteemed at all meritorious. Besides, 
the chief branch of rectitude is wanting, where there is no 
concern to display the glory of God: of this principle all are 
destitute whom he has not regenerated by his Spirit. Nor is 
it in vain that Isaiah says, that “the spirit of the fear of the 
Lord shall rest upon” Christ ; (@) which teaches us, that all 


(a) Isaiah xi. 2. 


CHAP. 111] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 265 


who are alienated from Christ are destitute of that “ fear of the 
Lord ” which is “the beginning of wisdom.” (6) The virtues 
which deceive us by their vain and specious appearance, will 
be applauded in civil courts, and in the common estimation of 
mankind ; but before the celestial tribunal they will possess no 
value to merit the reward of righteousness. 

VY. The will, therefore, is so bound by the slavery of sin, 
that it cannot excite itself, much less devote itself to any thing 
-good; for such a disposition is the beginning of a conversion 
to God, which in the Scriptures is attributed solely to Divine 
grace. ‘I'hus Jeremiah prays to the Lord to convert or turn 
him, if he would have him to be turned. (c) Whence the 
Prophet, in the same chapter, describing the spiritual redemp- 
tion of the faithful, says, ‘‘’Mhe Lord hath redeemed Jacob, 
and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger 
than he;” (d) alluding to the strong fetters with which the 
sinner’is bound as long as he is deserted by the Lord, and 
continues under the yoke of the devil. Nevertheless there still 
remains the faculty of will, which with the strongest propen- 
- sity is inclined to and rushes into sin; for when man subject- 
ed himself to this necessity, he was not deprived of his will, 
but of soundness of will. Bernard properly observes, that we 
all have a power to will; but that to will what is good, is an 
advantage; to will what is evil, a defect. Therefore simply 
to will belongs to man; to will what is evil, to corrupt nature ; 
to will what is good, to grace. Now, when I assert that the 
will, being deprived of its liberty, is necessarily drawn or led 
into evil, [ should wonder, if any one considered it as a harsh 
expression, since it has nothing in it absurd, nor is it wnsanc- 
tioned by the custom of good men. It offends those who 
know not how to.distinguish between necessity and compul- 
sion. But if any one should ask them, whether God is not ne- 
cessarily good, and whether the devil is not necessarily evil, — 
what answer will they make? For there is such a close con- 
nection between the goodness of God. and his Deity, that his be- 
ing God is not more necessary than his being good. But the 
devil is by his fall so alienated from communion with all that is 
good, that he can do nothing but what is evil. But if any one 
should sacrilegiously object, that little praise is due to God for 
his goodness, which he is constrained to preserve, — shall we 
not readily reply, that his inability to do evil arises from his 
infinite goodness, and not from the impulse of violence? 
Therefore, if a necessity of doing well impairs not the liberty. 
of the Divine will in doing well; if the devil, who cannot but 
do evil, nevertheless sins voluntarily; who then will assert 


(b) Psalm cxi. 10. (c) Jer. xxxi. 18. (d) Jer. xxxi. 11. 
VOL. I. 34 


266 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 11. 


that man sins less voluntarily, because he is under a necessity 
of sinning? ‘This necessity Augustine every where maintains; 
and even when he was pressed with the cavils of Celestius, 
who tried to throw an odium on this doctrine, he confidently 
expressed himself in these terms: ‘‘ By means of liberty it 
came to pass that man fell into sin; but now the penal depra- 
vity consequent on it, instead of liberty, has introduced necessi- 
ty.” And whenever the mention of this subject occurs, he 
hesitates not to speak in this manner of the necessary servitude 
of sin. We must.therefore observe this grand point of distinc- 
tion, that man, having been corrupted by his fall, sms volunta- 
rily, not with reluctance or constraint; with the strongest 
propensity of disposition, not with violent coercion ; with the 
bias of his own passions, and not with external compulsion: 
yet such is the pravity of his nature, that he cannot be excited 
and biassed to any thing but what is evil. If this be true, 
there is no impropriety in affirming, that he is under a necessi- 
ty of smning. Bernard, subscribing to what is said by Augus- 
tine, thus expresses himself: ‘‘ Among all the animals, man 
alone is free; and yet, by the intervention of sin, he also suffers 
a species of violence; but from the will, not from nature, so 
that he is not thereby deprived of his innate liberty.” For 
what is voluntary is also free. Anda little after: “The will 
being, by I know not what corrupt and surprising means, 
changed for the worse, is itself the author of the necessity to 
which it is subject; so that neither necessity, being voluntary, 
can excuse the will, nor the will, being fascinated, can exclude 
necessity.’ For this necessity is in some measure voluntary. 
Afterwards he says, that we are oppressed with a yoke, but no 
other than that of a voluntary servitude; that therefore our 
servitude renders us miserable, and our will renders us inexcu- 
sable ; because the will, when it was free, made itself the slave 
of sin. At length he concludes, ‘‘'Thus the soul, in a certain 
strange and evil manner, under this kind of voluntary and free 
yet pernicious necessity, is both enslaved and free; enslaved 
by necessity, free by its will; and, what 1s more wonderful 
and more miserable, it is guilty, because free; and enslaved 
wherein it is guilty; and so therein enslaved wherein it is 
free.” From these passages the reader clearly perceives that I 
am teaching no novel doctrine, but what was long ago advanced 
by Augustine, with the universal consent of pious men, and 
which for nearly a thousand years after was confined to the 
cloisters of monks. But Lombard, for want of knowing how 
to distinguish necessity from coaction, gave rise to a pernicious 
error. | 

VI. It is necessary, on the other hand, to consider the remedy 
of Divine grace, by which the depravity of nature is corrected 


CHAP. 111. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 267 


and healed. For since the Lord, in the assistance which he 
affords us, bestows on us that which we need, an exhibition of 
the nature of his work in us will immediately discover the na- 
ture of our necessity. When the Apostle tells the Philippians, 
that he is “confident that he which hath begun a good work 
in them will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ ;” (e) by 
the beginning of a good work he undoubtedly designs the com- 
mencement of conversion, which takes place in the will. There- 
fore God begins the good work in us by exciting in our hearts 
a love, desire, and ardent pursuit of righteousness ; or, to speak 
more properly, by bending, forming, and directing our hearts 
towards righteousness ; but he completes it, by confirming us to 
perseverance. That no one may cavil, that the good work is 
begun by the Lord, inasmuch as the will, which is weak of 
itself, is assisted by him, the Spirit declares in another place 
how far the ability of the will reaches, when left to itself. “A 
new heart also,’ says he, “will I give you, and a new spirit 
will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart 
out of your flesh, and I will give youa heart of flesh. And I 
will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my 
statutes.” (f) Who will assert that the infirmity of the human 
will is only strengthened by assistance, to enable it efficaciously 
to aspire to the choice of that which is good, when it actually 
needs a total transformation and renovation? If there be na 
stone any softness, which, by some application, being made more 
tender, would be flexible in every direction, then I will not 
deny the flexibility of the human heart to the obedience of rec- 
titude, provided its imperfections are supplied by the grace of 
God. But if, by this similitude, the Lord intended to show 
that no good will ever be extracted from our hearts, unless they 
are entirely renewed, let us not divide between him and us, . 
what he claims exclusively to himself. If, therefore, when 
God converts us to the pursuit of rectitude, this change is hke 
the transformation of a stone into flesh, it follows, that what- 
ever belongs to our own will is removed, and what succeeds to 
it is entirely from God. The will, I say, is removed, not con- 
sidered as the will; because, in the conversion of man, the 
properties of our original nature remain entire. I assert also, 
that it is created anew, not that the will then begins to exist, 
but that it is then converted from an evil into a good one. 
This I affirm to be done entirely by God, because, according to 
the testimony of the same Apostle, ‘we are not sufficient” 
- even “to think.” (@) Therefore he elsewhere declares, not 
merely that God assists the infirmity of our will, or corrects its 
depravity, but that he ‘“worketh in us to will.” (h) Whence 


(e) Phil.i.6.  (f) Ezek. xxxvi. 26,27. (g) 2 Cor. iii. 5. , (A) Phil. ii. 13. 


968 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK II, 


it is easy to infer what I have already remarked, that whatever 
good is in the human will, is the work of pure grace. In the 
same sense he elsewhere pronounces that it is “God which 
worketh all in all.” (7) For in that place he is not discussmg 
the government of the universe} but asserting that the praise of 
all the excellences found in the faithful belongs to God alone. 
And by using the word “all,” he certainly makes God the 
author of spiritual life from its commencement even to its ter- 
mination. ‘This is the same as he had before taught in other 
words, declaring that the faithful are “‘of God in Christ ;” (/) 
where he evidently intends the new creation, by which what 
belonged to our common nature is abolished. For we must 
here understand an implied contrast between Adam and Christ, — 
which he states more plainly in another place, where he 
teaches that ‘“we are the workmanship of God, created in 
Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained 
that we should walk in them.” (2) For by this argument he 
designs to prove that our salvation is gratuitous, because the 
beginning of all good is from the second creation, which we 
obtain in Christ. Now, if we possessed any ability, though ever 
so small, we should also have some portion of merit. But to 
annihilate all our pretensions, he argues that we have merited 
nothing, because ‘‘we are created in Christ Jesus‘ unto good 
works, which God hath before ordained ; ” in which expressions 
he again signifies that all the parts of good works, even from 
the first inclination of the mind, are entirely from God. For 
this reason the Psalmist, after having said that “he (God) hath 
made us,” that there may be no division of the work, immedi- 
ately subjoins, ‘and not we ourselves.” (mm) That he speaks 
of regeneration, which is the commencement of the spiritual 
life, is evident from the context, where it follows immediately 
after, that ““we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.” 
We see, then, that not content with having simply attributed to 
God the praise of our salvation, he expressly excludes us from 
all fellowship with him; as though he would say, that man 
has not even the smallest particle remaining 1n which he ean 
glory, because all is of God. 

Vil. But there may be some, who will concede that the 
will, being, of its own spontaneous inclination, averse to what is 
good, is converted solely by the power of the Lord; yet in 
such a manner, that being previously prepared, it has also its 
own share in the work ; that grace, as Augustine teaches, pre- 
cedes every good work, the will following grace, not leading it, 
being its companion, not its guide. This unobjectionable ob- 
servation of that holy man, Peter Lombard preposterously 


(zt) 1 Cor. xii. 6, (k) 1 Cor. i. 30. (1) Eph. ii. 10. (m) Psalm c. 3. 


CHAP. I11.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 269 


wrests to an erroneous meaning. Now, I contend that both in 
the words of the. Prophet which I have cited, and in other 
passages, these two things are clearly signified, that the Lord 
corrects our depraved will, or rather removes it, and of him- 
self introduces a good one in its place. As it is preceded by 
grace, | allow you to style it .an attendant; but since its re- 
formation is the work of the Lord, it is wrong to attribute to 
man a voluntary obedience in following the guidance of grace. 
Therefore it is not a proper expression of Chrysostom, that 
grace is able to effect nothing without the will, nor the will 
without grace; as if grace did not produce the will itself, as 
we have just seen from Paul. Nor was it the intention of 
Augustine, when he called the human will the companion of 
erace, to assign to it any secondary office next to grace in the 
good work; but with a view to refute the nefarious dogma 
broached by Pelagius, who made the prime cause of salvation 
to consist in human merit, he contends, what was sufficient for 
his present argument, that grace is prior to all merit ; omitting, 
at this time, the other question concerning the perpetual efli- 
ciency of grace, which is admirably treated by him on other 
occasions. For when he frequently says, that the Lord pre- 
cedes the unwilling that he may will, and follows the willing 
that he may not will in vain, he makes him the sole author of 
the good work. His language on this subject is too explicit to 
require much argument. ‘Men labour,” says he, ‘“ to discover 
in our will something that is our own, and not derived from 
God ; and how any such discovery can be made, I know not.” 
In his first book against Pelagius and Celestius, where he ex- 
plains that declaration of Christ, ‘“‘ Every man that hath heard 
of the Father cometh unto me, o (7) he says, that “the will is 
assisted so as to enable it not only to know its duty, but what 
it knows, also todo.” And thus when God teaches not by the 
letter of the law, but by the grace of the Spirit, he teaches 
in such a manner, that whatever each one has learned, he 
not only sees in knowing it, but desires in willing, and per 
forms in doing. 

VIII. And as we are now engaged on the principal point of 
the argument, let us give the reader a summary of the doctrine 
and prove it by a few very clear testimonies of Scripture; ane 
then, that no one may accuse us of perverting the Scripture 
let us also show that the truth which we assert to be deducec 
from the Scripture is not destitute of the support of this holy 
man; I mean Augustine. For I conceive it is unnecessary te 
recite in regular order all the passages which might be adduced 
from the Scriptures in confirmation of our opinion; provided 


(n) John vi. 45. 


270 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK 11. 


that the selection, which shall be made, prepares a way to the 
understanding of all the rest, which are frequently to be found. 
Nor do [ think that there will be any impropriety in evincing 
my agreement with that man, to whose authority the consent 
of the pious pays a great and merited deference. The origin of 
all good clearly appears, from a plain and certain reason, to be 
from no other than from God alone; for no propensity of the 
will to any thing good can be found but in the elect. But the 
cause of election must not be sought in men. Whence we 
may conclude, that man has not a good will from himself, but 
that it proceeds from the same decree by which we were 
elected before the creation of the world. ‘There is also another 
reason, not dissimilar. For since good volitions and good 
actions both arise from faith, we must see whence faith itself 
originates. Now, since the Scripture uniformly proclaims it to 
be the gratuitous gift of God, it follows that it is the effect of 
mere grace, when we, who are naturally and completely prone 
to evil, begin to will any thing that is good: ‘Therefore the 
Lord, when he mentions these two things in the conversion of 
his people, that he takes away from them their stony heart, 
and gives them a heart of flesh, plainly declares, that what 
originates from ourselves must be removed, that we may be 
converted to righteousness; and that whatever succeeds in its 
place proceeds from himself. Nor is it only in one passage 
that he announces this; for he says in Jeremiah, ‘‘ I will give 
them one heart and one way, that they may fear me for 
ever.”’ (0) And a little after, “I will put my fear in their 
hearts, that they shall not depart from me.”? Again in Ez«kiel, 
“T will give them one heart, and will put a new spirit withm 
you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and 
will give them a heart of flesh.” (9) He could not more evi- — 
dently claim to himself and take from us all that is good and - 
upright in our will, than when he declares our conversion to be 

the creation of a new spirit and of a new heart. For it always 

follows, that nothing good proceeds from our will till it be 

renovated ; and that after its renovation, as far as it is good, it 

is from God, and not from ourselves. 

IX. And we find the saints have made this the subject of 
their prayers. Solomon prayed, ‘‘May the Lord incline our 
hearts unto him to keep his commandments.” (¢) He shows 
the stubbornness of our heart, which, unless a new bias be 
given to it, naturally indulges itself in rebellion against the 
Divine law. The same petition is offered by the Psalmist: 
‘Incline my heart unto thy testimonies.” (r) For we should 
always remark the opposition between the perverse bias of the 


(0) Jer. xxxii. 39. (q) 1 Kings viii. 56. 
(p) Ezek. xi. 19. (r) Psalm exix. 36. 


CHAP. II. | CHRISIIAN RELIGION. 271 


heart, which inclines it to rebellion, and this correction, which 
constrains it to obedience. But when David, perceiving him- 
self to be for a time deprived of the direction of grace, prays 
that God would “ create in’”’ him ‘‘a clean heart, and renew a 
right spirit within” him, (s) does he not acknowledge that all 
the parts of his heart are full of impurity, and his spirit warped 
by a depraved obliquity? and by calling the purity which 
he earnestly implores, the creation of God, does he not ascribe 
it entirely to him? If any one object, that the petition itself is 
‘a proof of a pious and holy affection, the answer is easy, that 
although David had already partly repented, yet he compares 
his former state with that melancholy fall, which he had ex- 
perienced. Assuming the character, therefore, of a man alien- 
ated from God, he properly requests for himself all those things 
which God confers on his elect in regeneration. Resembling a 
dead man, therefore, he prays to be created anew, that, instead 
of being the slave of Satan, he may become the instrument 
of the Holy Spirit. Truly wonderful and monstrous is the 
extravagance of our pride. God requires of us nothing more 
severe than that we most religiously observe his sabbath, by 
resting from our own works; but there is nothing which we 
find more difficult, or to which we are more reluctant, than 
to bid farewell to our own works, in order to give the works of 
God their proper place. If there were no obstacle arising from 
our folly, Christ has given a testimony to his graces, sufficiently 
clear to prevent them from being wickedly suppressed. ‘‘I am 
the vine,’”’ says he, “‘ye are the branches. My Father is the 
husbandman. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except 
it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 
For without me ye can do nothing.” (t) If we cannot bear 
fruit of ourselves, any more than a branch can bud after it is 
torn up from the ground, and deprived of moisture, we must 
no longer seek for any aptitude in our nature to that which is 
good. ‘There is no ambiguity in this conclusion, ‘4 Without 
me ye can do nothing.” He does not say that we are too 
weak to be sufficient for ourselves, but reducing us to nothing, 
excludes every idea of ability, however diminutive. If, being 
engrafted into Christ, we bear fruit like a vine, which derives 
the energy of vegetation from the moisture of the earth, from 
the dew of heaven, and from the benign influences of the sun, 
I see nothing of our own remaining in any good work, if we 
preserve entire to God the honour which belongs to him. It is 
in vain to urge that frivolous subtlety, that the branch already 
possesses sap, and a fructifying power, and that therefore it 
does not derive all from the earth, or from the original root, 


(s) Psalm li. 10. (t) John xv. 1, 4, 5. 


279 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK I1. 


4 


because it contributes something of its own. For the meaning 
of Christ is clearly that we are as a dry and worthless log, 
when separated from him; because, independently of him, we 
have no ability to do good, as he says also in another place: 
“ Kivery plant, which my heavenly Father has not planted, 
shall be rooted up.’’?(v) Wherefore the Apostle ascribes all the 
praise to him in the place already cited. ‘It is God,” says he, 
“which worketh in you both to will and to do.” (w) The 
first part of a good work is volition, the next an effectual en- 
deavour to perform it; God is the author of both. Therefore 
we rob the Lord, if we arrogate any thing to ourselves either in 
volition or in execution. *If God were said to assist the in- 
firmity of our will, then there would be something left to us; 
but since he is said to produce the will, all the good that is in 
it, is placed without us. And because the good will is still op- 
pressed by the burden of our flesh, so that it cannot extricate 
itself, he has added, that in struggling with the difficulties of 
that conflict, we are supplied with constancy of exertion to 
carry our volitions into effect. For otherwise there would be 
no truth in what he elsewhere teaches, that ‘‘it is the same 
God. which worketh all in all,” (x) which we have before 
shown comprehends the whole course of the spiritual life. For 
which reason David, after having prayed that the way of. God 
may be discovered to him, that he may walk in his truth, im- 
mediately adds, ‘‘Unite my heart to fear thy name.” (y) In 
these words he intimates, that even good men are subject to so 
many distractions of mind, that they soon wander and fall, un- 
less they are strengthened to persevere. For the same reason, 
in another passage, having prayed that his steps might be 
ordered in the word of the Lord, he likewise implores strength 
for a warfare: “Let not any iniquity have dominion: over 
me.”’(z) In this manner, therefore, the Lord both begins and 
completes the good work in us; that it may be owing to him, 
that the avill conceives a love for what is right, that it is in- 
clined to desire it, and is excited and impelled to endeavour to 
attain it; and then that the choice, desire, and endeavour do 
not fail, but proceed even to the completion of the desired 
effect; lastly, that a man proceeds with constancy in them, 
and perseveres even to the end. 

X. And he moves the will, not according to the system 
maintained and believed for many ages, in such a manner that 
it would afterwards be at our option either to obey the im- 
pulse or to resist it, but by an efficacious influence. The 
observation, therefore, so frequently repeated by Chrysostom, 

that “‘ Whom God draws, he draws willing,” we are obliged to 


(v) Matt. xv. 13. (w) Phil. ii. 13. (x) 1 Cor. xii. 6. 
(y) Psalm lxxxvi. 11. (z) Psalm exix. 133. 


CHAP. 11. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. Q73 


reject, being an insinuation that God only waits for us with 
his hand extended, if we choose to accept his assistance. We 
grant that such was the primitive condition of man during his 
state of integrity, that he could incline to the one side or the 
other ; but since Adam has taught us by his own example how 
miserable free will is, unless God give us both will and power, 
what will become of us if he impart his grace to us in that 
small proportion? Nay, we obscure and diminish his grace 
by our ingratitude. For the Apostle does not teach that the 
grace of a good will is offered to us for our acceptance, but 
that he “‘ worketh in us to will ;” which is equivalent to saying, 
that the Lord, by his Spirit, directs, inclines, and governs our 
heart, and reigns in it as in his own possession. Nor does he 
promise by Ezekiel that he will give to the elect a new spirit, 
only that they may be able to walk, but that they may actually 
walk, in his precepts.(a) Nor can the declaration of Christ, 
“ Every man that hath heard of the Father cometh unto me,” (6) 
be understood in any other sense than as a proof of the positive 
efficacy of Divine grace ; as Augustine also contends. 'This grace 
the Lord deigns not to give to any person promiscuously, accord- 
ing to the observation commonly attributed, if I mistake not, 
to Occam, that it is denied to no man who does what he can. 
Men are to be taught, indeed, that the Divine benignity is free to 
all who seek it, without any exception ; but since none begin to 
seek it, but those who have been inspired by heavenly grace, 
not even this diminutive portion ought to be taken from his 
praise. ‘This is the privilege of the elect, that, being regenerated 
by the Spirit of God, they are led and governed by his direction. 
Wherefore Augustine as justly ridicules those who arrogate to 
themselves any part of a good volition, as he reprehends others, 
who suppose that to be given promiscuously to all, which is 
the special evidence of gratuitous election. ‘ Nature,’ says 
he, ‘‘is common to all men, but not grace.” He calls it “a 
transparent subtlety, which shines merely with vanity, when 
that is extended generally to all, which God confers on whom he 
chooses.” But elsewhere, ‘“‘How have you come? by believing. 
Be afraid, lest while you arrogate to yourself the discovery of 
the way of righteousness, you perish from the way of right- 
eousness. I am come, you say, by free will; I am come 
through my own choice. Why are you inflated with pride? 
Will you know that this also is given to you? Hear him pro- 
claiming, ‘No man can come to me, except the Father which 
hath sent me draw him.’’’(c) And it incontrovertibly follows, 
from the words of John, that the hearts of the pious are di- 
vinely governed with such effect, that they follow with an af- 


(a) Ezek. xi. 19,20; xxxvi.27, (6) John vi. 45. (c) John vi. 44. 
VoL. I. 35 - 


274, 3 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1. 


fection which nothing can alter. ‘‘ Whosoever is born of God,” 
he says, ‘“‘cannot sin; for his seed remaineth in him.” (d) For 
we see that the neutral, inefficacious impulse imagined by the 
sophists, which every one would be at liberty to obey or resist, 
is evidently excluded, where it is asserted that God gives a 
constancy that is effectual to perseverance. 

XI. Concerning perseverance there would have been no 
doubt that it ought to be esteemed the gratuitous gift of God, 
had it not been for the prevalence of a pestilent error, that it is 
dispensed according to the merit of men, in proportion to the 
gratitude which each person has discovered for the grace be- 
stowed on him. But as that opinion arose from the supposition 
that it was at our own option to reject or accept the offered 
grace of God, this notion being exploded, the other falls of 
course. Though here is a double error; for beside teaching 
that our gratitude for the grace first bestowed on us, and our 
legitimate use of that grace, are remunerated by subsequent 
blessings, they add also, that now grace does not operate alone 
in us, but only codperates with us. On the first point, we 
must admit that the Lord, while he daily enriches and loads 
his servants with new communications of his grace, perceiving 
the work which he has begun in them grateful and accept- 
able, discovers something in them which he blesses with still 
greater degrees of grace. And this is implied in the following 
declarations: ‘‘Unto every one that hath, shall be given.” 
And, “‘ Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been 
faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many 
things.” (e) But here two errors must be avoided; the legiti- 
mate use of the grace first bestowed must not be said to be re- 
warded with subsequent degrees of grace, as though man, by 
his own industry, rendered the grace of God efficacious; nor 
must it be accounted a remuneration in such a sense as to cease 
to be esteemed the free favour of God. I grant, then, that this 
Divine benediction is to be expected by the faithful, that the 
better they have used the former measures of grace, they shall 
afterwards be enriched with proportionably greater degrees of 
it. But I assert that this use also is from the Lord, and that 
this remuneration proceeds from his gratuitous benevolence. 
They are equally awkward and unhappy in their use of the 
trite distinction of operating and codperating grace. Augustine 
has used it indeed, but softens it by a suitable definition ; that 
God in codperating completes what in operating he begins, and 
that it is the same grace, but derives its name from the different 
mode of its efficiency. Whence it follows, that he makes no 
partition of the work between God and us, as though there 


(2) 1 John iii. 9. (e) Matt. xxv. 23, 29. Luke xix. 17, 26. 


"7 


CHAP. 111.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 975 


were a mutual concurrence from the respective exertions of 
each ; but that he only designates the multiplication of grace. 
To the same purpose is what he elsewhere asserts, that the 
good will of man precedes many of the gifts of God, but is 
itself one of their number. Whence it follows, that he leaves 
nothing for it to arrogate to itself. This is also particularly 
expressed by Paul. For having said that “it is God which 
worketh in us both to will and to do,” (f) he immediately 
adds, that he does both “‘of his own ‘good pleasure,”’ signifying 
by this expression that these are acts of gratuitous benignity. 
Now, to their wonted assertion, that after we have admitted the 
first grace, our own endeavours codperate with the grace which 
follows, I reply, if they mean that, after having been once 
subdued by the Divine power to the obedience of righteousness, 
we voluntarily advance, and are disposed to follow the gui- 
dance of grace, I make no objection. For it is very certain, that 
where the grace of God reigns, there is such a promptitude of 
obedience. But whence does this arise but from the Spirit 
of God, who, uniformly consistent with himself, cherishes and 
strengthens toa constancy of perseverance that disposition of 
obedience which he first originated? But if they mean that 
man derives from himself an ability to codperate with the 
grace of God, they are involved in a most pestilent error. 

XII. And to this purpose they falsely and ignorantly pervert 
that observation of the Apostle, “I laboured more abundantly 
than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with 
me.’ (@) For they understand it in this manner ; that Lecause 
his preference of himself to all others might appear rather too 
arrogant, he corrects it by referring the praise to the grace of 
God; but yet so as to denominate himself: a codperator with 
grace. It is surprising that so many men, not otherwise erro- 
neous, have stumbled at this imaginary difficulty. For the 
Apostle does not say that the grace of God laboured with him, 
to make himself a partner in the labour; but rather by that 
correction ascribes the whole praise of the labour to grace 
alone. ‘It is not I,’’ says he, ‘“‘ that have laboured, but the 
grace of God which was with me.” They have been deceived 
by an ambiguity of expression; but still more by a preposte- 
rous translation, in which the force of the Greek article ig omit- 
ted. For if you translate it literally, he says, not that grace 
was cooperative with him, but that the grace which was with 
him was the author of all. And the same is maintained by 
Augustine, though briefly, yet without obscurity, when he 
thus expresses himself: ‘‘'The good will of man precedes 
many of the gifts of God, but not all. But of those which it 


(f) Phil. ii. 13. » » (g) 1 Cortaxyith0: 


276 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 11 


precedes it is itself one.”” Then follows this reason; because 
it is written, “The God of my mercy shall prevent me.” (h) 
And, “‘ Mercy shall follow me.” (7) It prevents the unwilling, 
that he may will; it follows the willing, that he may not will 
in vain.”” With this agrees Bernard, who introduces the Church, 
saying, “ Draw me unwilling, to make me willing; draw me 
inactive, to make me run.” 

XIII. Now, let us hear Augustine speak in his own words, 
lest the sophists of the Sorbonne, those Pelagians of the present 
age, according to their usual custom, accuse us of opposing the 
whole current of antiquity. In this they imitate their father 
Pelagius, by whom Augustine was formerly obliged to enter 
into the same field of controversy. In his treatise De Corr. 
et Grat., addressed to Valentine, he treats very much at large 
what I shall recite briefly, but in his own words: “ That to 
Adam was given the grace of persevering in good if he chose ; 
that grace is given to us to will, and by willing to overcome 
concupiscence. ‘That Adam therefore had the power if he had 
the will, but not the will that he might have the power; but 
that it is given to us to have both the will and the power. 
That the primitive liberty was a power to abstain from sin, but 
that ours is much greater, being an inability to commit sin.” 
And lest he should be supposed to speak of the perfection to 
be enjoyed after the attainment of a state of immortality, as 
Lombard misinterprets his meaning, he presently removes this 
difficulty. For he says, ‘the will of the saints is so inflamed by 
the Holy Spirit, that they therefore have an ability, because 
they have such a will; and that their having such a will pro- 
ceeds from the operations of God.” For if, amidst such great 
weakness, which still requires ‘“‘ strength” to be “made per- 
fect’ (k) for the repressing of pride, they were left to their 
own will, so as to have ability, through the Divine assistance, 
if they were willing, and God did not operate in them to pro- 
duce that will; among so many temptations and infirmities 
their will would fail, and therefore they could not possibly 
persevere. The infirmity of the human will, then, is succoured, 
that it may be invariably and inseparably actuated by Divine 
grace, and so, notwithstanding all its weakness, may not fail. 
He afterwards discusses more at large how our hearts necessa- 
rily follow the impulse of God; and he asserts that the Lord 
draws men with their own wills, but that those wills are such as 
he himself has formed. Now, we have a testimony from the 
mouth of Augustine to the point which we are principally en- 
deavouring to establish; that grace is not merely offered by 
the Lord to be either received or rejected, according to the free 


(h) Psalm lix. 10. (i) Psalm xxiii. 6 (k) 2 Cor. xii. 9. 


CHAP. 1. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 277 


choice of each individual, but that it is grace which produces 
both the choice and the will in the heart; so that every subse- 
quent good work is the fruit and effect of it, and that it is 
obeyed by no other will but that which it has produced. For 
this is his language also in another place — that it is grace alone 
which performs every good work in us. 

XIV. When he observes that the will is not taken away by 
grace, but only changed from a bad one into a good one, and 
when it is good, assisted; he only intends that man is not 
_drawn in such a manner as to be carried away by an external 
impulse, without any inclination of his mind; but that he is 
internally so disposed as to obey from his very heart. ‘That 
grace is specially and gratuitously given to the elect, he main- 
tains in an epistle to Boniface, in the following language: 
* We know that the grace of God is not given to all men; and 
that to them to whom it is given, it is given neither according 
to the merits of works, nor according to the merits of will, but 
by gratuitous favour; and to those to whom it is not given, we 
know that it is not given by the righteous judgment of God.”’ 
And in the same epistle, he strenuously combats that opinion, 
which supposes that subsequent grace is given to the merits of 
men, because by not rejecting the first grace they showed 
themselves worthy of it. For he wishes Pelagius to allow 
that grace is necessary to us for every one of our actions, and 
is not a retribution of our works, that it may be acknowledged 
to be pure grace. But the subject cannot be comprised in a 
more concise summary than in the eighth chapter of his treatise 
addressed to Valentine ; where he teaches, that the human will 
obtains, not grace by liberty, but liberty by grace ; that being 
impressed by the same grace with a disposition of delight, it 
is formed for perpetuity ; that it is strengthened with invinci- 
ble fortitude ; that while grace reigns, it never falls, but, de- 
serted by grace, falls immediately; that by the gratuitous 
mercy of the Lord, it is converted to what is good, and, being 
converted, perseveres in it; that the first direction of the hu- 
man will to that which is good, and its subsequent constancy, 
depend solely on the will of God, and not on any merit of 
man. ‘Thus there is left to man such a free will, if we choose 
to give it that appellation, as he describes in another place, that 
he can neither be converted to God nor continue in God but 
by grace; and that all the ability which he has is derived from 
grace. 


9783 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 1., 


CHAPTER IV. 


THE OPERATION OF GOD IN THE HEARTS OF MEN. 


Ir has now, I apprehend, been sufficiently proved, that man 
is so enslaved by sin, as to be of his own nature incapable of 
an effort, or even an aspiration, towards that which is good. 
We have also laid down a distinction between coaction and 
necessity, from which it appears that while he sins necessarily, 
he nevertheless sins voluntarily. But since, while he is de- 
voted to the servitude of the devil, he seems to be actuated by 
his will, rather than by his own, it remains for us to explain 
the nature of both kinds-of influence. There is also this 
question to be resolved, whether any thing is to be attributed 
to God in evil actions, in which the Scripture intimates that 
some influence of his is concerned. Augustine somewhere 
compares the human will to a horse, obedient to the direction 
of his rider; and God and the devil he compares to riders. 
‘If God rides it, he, like a sober and skilful rider, manages it 
in a graceful manner; stimulates its tardiness; restrains its 
immoderate celerity ; represses its wantonness and wildness; 
tames its perverseness, and conducts it into the right way. 
But if the devil has taken possession of it, he, like a,foolish 
and wanton rider, forces it through pathless places, hurries it 
into ditches, drives it down over precipices, and excites it to 
obstinacy and ferocity.”” With this similitude, as no better 
occurs, we will at present be content. When the will of a 
natural man is said to be subject to the power of the devil, so 
as to be directed by it, the meaning is, not that it resists and is 
compelled to a reluctant submission, as masters compel slaves 
to an unwilling performance of their commands, but that, 
being fascinated by the fallacies of Satan, it necessarily sub- 
mits itself to all his directions. For those whom the Lord 
does not favour with the government of his Spirit, he abandons, 
in righteous judgment, to the influence of Satan. Wherefore 
the Apostle says, that “the god of this world hath blinded the 
minds of them which believe not,’’ who are destined to de- 
struction, “lest the light of the gospel should shine unto 
them.” (Z) And in another place, that he ‘ worketh in the 
children of disobedience.” (m) The blinding of the wicked, 
and all those enormities which attend it, are called the works 
of Satan; the cause of which must nevertheless be sought _ 


(l) 2 Cor. iv. 4. (m) Eph. 11. 2. 


CHAP. Iv.| CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 279 


only in the human will, from which proceeds the root of evil 
and in which rests the foundation of the kingdom of Satan, 
that is, ‘sin. 7 

II. Very different, in such instances, is the method of the 
Divine operation. And that we may have a clearer view of it, 
let us take as an example the calamity which holy Job suffered 
from the Chaldeans. (7) ‘The Chaldeans massacred his shep- 
herds, and committed hostile depredations on his flock. Now, 
the wickedness of their procedure is evident; yet in these 
transactions Satan was not unconcerned; for with him the 
history states the whole affair to have originated. But Job 
himself recognizes in it the work of the Lord, whom he asserts 
to have taken from him those things of which he had been 
plundered by the Chaldeans. How can we refer the same 
action to God, to Satan, and to man, as being each the author 
of it, without either excusing Satan by associating him with 
God, or making God the author of evil? Very easily, if we 
examine, first, the end for which the action was designed, and 
secondly, the manner in which it was effected. 'The design 
of the Lord is to exercise the patience of his servant by. ad- 
versity ; Satan endeavours to drive him to despair: the Chalde- 
ans, in defiance of law and justice, desire to enrich themselves 
by the property of another. So great a diversity of design 
makes a great distinction in the action. ‘There is no less 
difference in the manner. ‘The Lord permits his servant to be 
afflicted by Satan: the Chaldeans, whom he commissions ‘to 
execute his purpose, he permits and resigns to be impelled by 
Satan: Satan, with his envenomed stings, instigates the minds 
of the Chaldeans, otherwise very depraved, to perpetrate the 
crime: they furiously rush into the act of injustice, and over- 
whelm themselves in criminality. Satan therefore is properly 
said to work in the reprobate, in whom he exercises his do- 
minion ; that is, the kingdom of iniquity. God also is said to 
work in a way proper to himself, because Satan, being the 
instrument of his wrath, turns himself hither and thither at his 
appointment and command, to execute his righteous judgments. 
Here I allude not to the universal influence of God, by which 
all creatures’ are sustained, and from which they derive an 
ability to perform whatever they do. I speak only of that 
special influence which appears in every particular act. We 
see, then, that the same action is without absurdity ascribed to 
God, to Satan, and to man; but the variety in the end and in 
the manner, causes the righteousness of God to shine without 
the least blemish, and the iniquity of Satan and of man to 
betray itself to its own disgrace. 


(n) Job i. 


280 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book u. 


III. The fathers are sometimes too scrupulous on this sub- 
ject, and afraid of a simple confession of the truth, lest they 
should afford an occasion to impiety to speak irreverently and 
reproachfully of the works of God. Though I highly approve 
this sobriety, yet I think we are in no danger, if we simply 
maintain what the Scripture delivers. Even Augustine at one 
time was not free from this scrupulosity ; as when he says that 
hardening and blinding belong not to the operation, but to the 
prescience of God. But these subtleties are inconsistent with 
numerous expressions of the Scripture, which evidently import 
some intervention of God beyond mere foreknowledge. And 
Augustine himself, in his fifth book against Julian, contends 
very largely, that sins proceed not only from the permission or 
the prescience, but from the power of God, in order that former 
sins may thereby be punished. So also what they advance 
concerning permission is too weak to be supported. ' God is 
very frequently said to blind and harden the reprobate, and te 
turn, incline, and influence their hearts, as I have elsewhere 
more fully stated. But it affords no explication of the nature 
of this influence to resort to prescience or permission. We 
answer, therefore, that it operates in two ways. For, since, 
when his hight is removed, nothing remains but darkness and 
blindness ; since, when his Spirit is withdrawn, our hearts har- 
den into stones; since, when his direction ceases, they are 
warped into obliquity ; he is properly said to blind, harden, and 
incline those whom he deprives of the power of seeing, obey- 
ing, and acting aright., ‘The second way, which is much more 
consistent with strict propriety of language, is, when, for the 
execution of his judgments, he, by means of Satan, ‘the mi- 
nister of his wrath, directs their counsels to what he pleases, and 
excites their wills and strengthens their efforts. Thus, when 
Moses relates that Sihon the king would not grant a free pas- 
sage to the people, because God had ‘“ hardened his spirit, and 
made his heart obstinate,” he immediately subjoins the end of 
God’s design : “ That he might deliver him into thy hand.” (0). 
Since God willed his destruction, the obduration of his heart, 
therefore, was the Divine preparation for his ruin. 

IV. The following expressions seem to relate to the former 
method: ‘“‘He removeth away the speech of the trusty, and 
taketh away the understanding of the aged. He taketh away 
the heart of the chief people of the earth, and causeth them to 
wander in a wilderness where there is no way.’ (p) Again:“O 
Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and har- 
dened our heart from thy fear?’’(q) For these passages rather 
indicate what God makes men by deserting them, than show 


(0) Deut. ii. 30. (p) Job xii. 20, 24. (q) Isaiah Ixiii. 17. 


CHAP. Iv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 981 


how he performs his operations within them. But there are 
other testimonies, which go further ; as those which relate to 
the hardening of Pharaoh: “I will harden his (Pharaoh’s) 
heart, that he shall not let the people go.” (7) » Afterwards the 
Lord says, ‘‘ [ have hardened his heart.” (s) Did he harden it 
by not mollifying it? That is true; but he did somewhat 
more, for he delivered his heart to Satan to be confirmed in 
obstinacy ; whence he had before said, “I will harden his 
heart.””’ The people march out of Egypt; the inhabitants of 
the country meet them in a hostile manner: by whom were 
they excited? Moses expressly declared to the people, that 
it was the Lord who had hardened their hearts. (¢) The 
Psalmist, reciting the same history, says, “‘ He turned their heart 
to hate his people.” (v) Now, it cannot be said that they fell in 
consequence of being deprived of the counsel of God. For 
if they are “hardened” and “turned,” they are positively in- 
clined to that point. Besides, whenever it has pleased him 
to punish the transgressions of his people, how has he ex- 
ecuted his work by means of the reprobate? In such a manner 
that any one may see, that the efficacy of the action proceeded 
from him, and that they were only the ministers of his will. 
Wherefore he threatened sometimes that he would call them 
forth by hissing, (w) sometimes that he would use them as a 
net (x) to entangle, sometimes as a hammer (y) to strike the 
people of Israel. But he particularly declared himself to be 
Operative in them, when he called Sennacherib an axe, (2) 
which was both directed and driven by his hand. Augustine 
somewhere makes the following correct distinction : “ that they 
sin, proceeds from themselves; that in sinning they perform 
this or that particular action, is from the power of God, who 
divides the darkness according to his pleasure.” 

V. Now that the ministry of Satan is concerned in instiga- 
ting the reprobate, whenever the. Lord directs them hither or 
thither by his providence, may be sufficiently proved even 
from one passage. For it is frequently asserted in Samuel that 
an evil spirit of the Lord, and an evil spirit from the Lord, either 
agitated or quitted Saul.(a) To refer this to the Holy Spirit 
were impious. An impure spirit, therefore, is called a spirit of 
God, because it acts according to his command and by his power, 
being rather an instrument in the performance of the action, 
than itself the author of it. We must add, also, what is ad- 
vanced by Paul, that ‘God shall send strong delusion, that 
they who believed not the truth should believe a lie.” (6) Yet 


(r) Exod. iv. 21. (s) Exod. vii. 3. (t) Deut. ii. 30. 
(v) Psalm cy. 25. (w) Isaiah v. 26; vii. 18. 
(z) Ezek. xii. 13; xvii. 20. (y) Jer. 1. 23. (z) Isaiah x. 15, 


(a) 1 Sam. xvi. 14; xviii. 19; xix. 19. (6) 2 Thess. ii. 11, 12. 
VOL. I. 6 


989 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boor 11. 


there is always a wide difference, even in the same work, be- 
tween the ,operation of God and the attempts of Satan and 
wicked men. He makes the evil instruments, which he has in 
his hand, and can turn as he pleases, to be subservient to his 
justice. They, as they are evil, produce the imiquity which 
the depravity of their nature has conceived. ‘The other argu- 
ments, which tend to vindicate the majesty of God from every 
calumny, and to obviate the cavils of the impious, have already 
been advanced in the chapter concerning Providence. For, at 
present, I only intend briefly to show how Satan reigns in. the 
reprobate man, and how the Lord operates in them both. 

VI. But what liberty man possesses in those actions which 
in themselves are neither righteous nor wicked, and pertain 
rather to the corporeal than to the spiritual life, although we 
have before hinted, has not yet been explicitly stated. Some 
have admitted him in such things to possess a free choice; 
rather, as I suppose, from a reluctance to dispute on a subject 
of no importance, than from an intention of positively assert- 
ing that which they concede. Now, though I grant that they 
who believe themselves to be possessed of no power to justify 
themselves, believe what is principally necessary to be known 
in order to salvation, yet I think that this point also should 
not be neglected, that we may know it to be owing to the 
special favour of God, whenever our mind is disposed to choose 
that which is advantageous for us; whenever our will inclines 
to it; and, on the other hand, whenever our mind and under- 
standing avoid what would otherwise hurt us. And the power: 
of the providence of God extends so far, as not only to cause 
those events to succeed which he foresees will be best, but also 
to incline the wills of men to the same objects. Indeed, if we 
view the administration of external things with our own rea- 
son, we shall not doubt their subjection to the human will; 
but if we listen to the numerous testimonies, which proclaim — 
that in these things also the hearts of men are governed by the 
Lord, they will constrain us to submit the will itself to the 
special influence of God. Who conciliated the minds of the 
Egyptians towards the Israelites, (c) so as to induce them to 
lend them the most valuable of their furniture?) They would 
never have been induced to do this of their own accord. It 
follows, therefore, that their hearts were guided by the Lord 
rather than by an inclination of their own. And Jacob, if he 
had not been persuaded that God infuses various dispositions 
into men according to his pleasure, would not have said con- 
cerning his son Joseph, whom he thought to be some profane 
Egyptian, ‘God amt give you mercy before the man.” (d) 


(c¢) Exod. xi. 3. (d) Gen. xliii. 14. 


= 


CHAP. Iv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 283 


As the whole Church confesses in the Psalms, that, when God 
chose to compassionate her, he softened the hearts of the cruel 
nations into clemency.(e) Again, when Saul was so inflamed 
with rage, as to prepare himself for war, it is expressly men- 
tioned as the cause, that he was impelled by the Spirit of 
God.(f) Who diverted the mind of Absalom from adopting 
the counsel of Ahithophel, which used to be esteemed as an 
oracle? (g) Who inclined Rehoboam to be persuaded by the 
counsel of the young men?() Who caused the nations, that 
before were very valiant, to feel terror at the approach of the 
Israelites? Rahab the harlot confessed that this was the work 
of God. Who, on the other hand, dejected the minds of the 
Israelites with fear and terror, but he who had threatened in 
the law that he would “send a faintness into their hearts?” (7) 

VII. Some one will object, that these are peculiar examples, 
to the rule of which, things ought by no means universally to 
be reduced. But I maintain, that they are sufficient to prove 
that for which I contend; that God, whenever he designs to 
prepare the way for his providence, inclines and moves the 
wills of men even in external things, and that their choice is 
not so free, but that its liberty is subject to the will of God. 
That your mind depends more on the influence of God, than 
on the liberty of your own choice, you must be constrained to 
conclude, whether you are willing or not, from this daily expe- 
rience, that in affairs of no perplexity your judgment and un- 
derstanding frequently fail; that in undertakings not arduous 
your spirits languish; on the other hand, in things the most 
obscure, suitable advice is immediately offered ; in things great 
and perilous, your mind proves superior to every difficulty. 
And thus I explain the observation of Solomon, ‘ The hearing 
ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even buth of 
them.” (k) For he appears to me to speak, not of their crea- 
tion, but of the peculiar favour of God displayed in thei per- 
forming their functions. When he says, that “the king’s heart 
is in the hand of the Lord; as the rivers of water, he turneth 
it whithersoever he will;”(7) under one species he clearly 
comprehends the whole genus. For if the will of any man 
be free from all subjection, that privilege belongs eminently to 
the will of a king, which exercises a government in some 
measure over the wills of others; but if the will of the king 
be subject to the power of God, ours cannot be exempted from 
the same authority. Augustine has a remarkable passage on 
this subject: “The Scripture, if it be diligently examined, 
shows, not only that the good wills of men, which he turns 
from evil into good, and directs to good actions and to eternal 


fe) Psalm evi. 46. (f)1Sam. xi.6. (g)2Sam.xvii.14. (4) 1 Kings xii. 10 
; (¢) Lev. xxvi. 36. (k) Prov. xx. 12. (l) Prov. xxi. 1. 


284 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 11 
& 


life, but also that those wills which relate to the present life, 
are subject to the power of God, so that he, by a most secret, 
but yet a most righteous judgment, causes them to be inclined 
whither he pleases, and when he pleases, either for the com- 
munication of benefits, or for the infliction of punishments.” 

VIII. Here let the reader remember, that the ability of the 
human will is not to be estimated from the event of things, as 
some ignorant men are preposterously accustomed to do. For 
they conceive themselves fully and ingeniously to establish the 
servitude of the- human will, because even the most exalted 
monarchs have not all their desires fulfilled. But this ability, 
of which we speak, is to be considered within man, and not to 
be measured by external success. For in the dispute concern- 
ing free will, the question is not, whether a man, notwithstand- 
ing external impediments, can perform and execute whatever 
he may have resolved in his mind, but whether in every case 
his judgment exerts freedom of choice, and his will freedom 
of inclination. If men possess both these, then Attilus Re- 
gulus, when confined to the small extent of a cask stuck round 
with nails, will possess as much free will as Augustus Cesar, 
when governing a great part of the world with his nod. 


CHAPTER YV. 


A REFUTATION OF THE OBJECTIONS COMMONLY URGED IN SUPPORT 
OF FREE WILL. 


Enovex might appear to have been already said on the ser- 
vitude of the human will, did not they, who endeavour to over- 
throw it with a false notion of liberty, allege, on the contrary, 
certain reasons in opposition to our sentiments. First, they 
collect together some absurdities, in order to render it odious, 
as if it were abhorrent to common sense; and then they attack 
it with testimonies of Scripture. Both these weapons we will 
repel in order. If sin, say they, be necessary, then it ceases to 
be sin; if it be voluntary, then it may be avoided. 'These 
were also the weapons used by Pelagius in his attacks on Au- 
gustine ; with whose authority, however, we wish not to urge 
them, till we shall have given some satisfaction on the subject 
itself. I deny, then, that sin is the less criminal, because it is 
necessary ; I deny also the other consequence, which they 
infer, that it is avoidable because it is voluntary. For, if 
any one wish to dispute with God, and to escape his judgment 


CHAP. v.| CdARISTIAN RELIGION. 985 


by ‘the pretext of having been incapable of acting otherwise, 
he is prepared with an answer, which we have elsewhere ad- 
vanced, that it arises not from creation, but from the corruption 
of nature, that men, being enslaved by sin, can will nothing but 
what is evil. For whence proceeded that impotence, of which 
the ungodly would gladly avail themselves, but from Adam 
voluntarily devoting himself to the tyranny of the devil? 
Hence, therefore, the corruption with which we are firmly 
bound. It originated in the revolt of the first man from his - 
Maker. If all men are justly accounted guilty of this rebellion, 
let them not suppose themselves excused by necessity, in which 
very thing they have a most evident cause of their condemnation. 
And this I have before clearly explained, and have given an 
example im the devil himself, which shows, that he who sins 
necessarily, sins no less voluntarily ; and also in the elect an- 
gels, whose will, though it cannot swerve from what is good, 
ceases not to be a will. Bernard also judiciously inculcates 
the same doctrine, that we are, therefore, the more miserable 
because our necessity is voluntary ; which yet constrains us to 
be so devoted to it, that we are, as we have already observed, 
the slaves of sin. ‘The second branch of their argument is 
erroneous ; because it makes an improper transition from what 
is voluntary to what is free; but we have before evinced, that 
a thing may be done voluntarily, which yet is not the subject 
of free choice. 

II. hey add, that unless both virtues and vices proceed 
from the free choice of the will, it is not reasonable either that 
punishments should be inflicted, or that rewards should be 
conferred on.man. This argument, though first advanced by 
Aristotle, yet I grant is used on some occasions by Chrysostom 
and Jerome. ‘That it was familiar to the Pelagians, however, 
Jerome himself does not dissemble, but even relates their own 
words: “If the grace of God operates in us, then the crown 
will be given to grace, not to us who labour.” In regard to 
punishments, I reply, that they are justly inflicted on us, from 
whom the guilt of sin proceeds. For of what importance is it, 
whether sin be committed with a judgment free or enslaved, 
so it be committed with the voluntary bias of the passions; 
especially as man is proved to be a sinner, because he is sub- 
ject to the servitude of sin? With respect to rewards of , 
righteousness, where is the great absurdity, if we confess that 
they depend rather on the Divine benignity than on our own 
merits? How often does this recur in Augustine, ‘that God 
crowns not our merits, but his own gifts; and that they are 
called rewards, not as though they were due to our merits, but 
because they are retributions to the graces already conferred on 
us!” ‘They discover great acuteness in this observation, that 


286 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 11. 


4 
there remains no room for merits, if they originate not from 
free will; but in their opinion of the erroneousness of our 
sentiment they are greatly mistaken. For Augustine hesitates 
not on all occasions to inculcate as certain, what they think it 
impious to acknowledge; as where he says, “‘ What are the 
merits of any man? When he comes not with a merited re- 
ward, but with free grace, he alone being free and a deliverer 
from sins, finds all men sinners.” Again: “If you receive 
what is your due, you must be punished. What then is done? 
God has given you not merited punishment, but unmerited 
grace. If you wish to be excluded from grace, boast your 
merits.’ Again: ‘You are nothing of yourself; sins are 
yours, merits belong to God; you deserve punishment ; and 
when you come to be rewarded, he will crown his own gifts, 
not your merits.’’ In the same sense he elsewhere teaches 
that. grace proceeds not from merit, but merit from grace. 
And a little after he concludes, that God with his gifts pre- 
cedes all merits, that thence he may elicit his other merits, and 
gives altogether freely, because he discovers nothing as a cause 
of salvation. But what necessity is there for further quota- 
tions, when his writings are full of such passages? But the 
Apostle will even better deliver them from this error, if they 
will hear from what origin he deduces the glory of the saints. 
‘““ Whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom 
he called, them he also justified ; and whom he justified, them 
he also glorified.” (mm) Why, then, according to the Apostle, 
are the faithful crowned? Because by the mercy of the Lord, 
and not by their own industry, they are elected, and called, and 
justified. Farewell, then, this vain fear, that there will be an 
end of all merits if free will be overturned. For it is a proof 
of extreme folly, to be terrified and to fly from that to which 
the Scripture calls us. “If,” says he, ‘‘ thou didst receive it, 
why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?” (nm) 
You see that he divests free will of every thing, with the ex- 
press design of leaving no room for merits. But yet, the bene- 
ficence and liberality of God being inexhaustible and various, 
those graces which he confers on us, because he makes them 
ours, he rewards, just as if they were our own virtues. 

Ill. They further allege what may appear to be borrowed 
from Chrysostom, that if our will has not this ability to choose 
good or evil, the partakers of the same nature must be either 
all evil or all good. And not very far from this is the writer, 
whoever he was, of the treatise On the Calling of the Gentiles, 
which is circulated under the name of Ambrose, when he 
argues, that no man would ever recede from the faith, unless 


(m) Rom. viii. 29. (n) 1 Cor, iv. 7. 


~ 


cuar. v.] «CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 287 


s 
the grace of God left us the condition of mutability. In which 
it is surprising that such great men were so inconsistent with 
themselves. For how did it not occur to Chrysostom, that it 
is the election of God, which makes this difference between 
men? We are not afraid to allow, what Paul very strenuously 
asserts, that all, without exception, are depraved and addicted 
to wickedness ; but with him we add, that the mercy of God 
does not permit all to remain in depravity. Therefore, since 
we all naturally labour under the same disease, they alone re- 
cover to whom the Lord has been pleased to apply his healing 
hand. The rest, whom he passes by in righteous judgment, 
putrefy in their corraption till they are entirely consumed. 
And it is from the same cause, that some persevere to the end, 
and others decline and fall in the midst of their course. For 
perseverance itself also is a gift of God, which he bestows not 
on all men promiscuously, but imparts to whom he pleases. If 
we inguire the cause of the difference, why:some persevere 
with constancy, and others fail through instability, no other 
can be found, but that God sustains the former by his power, 
that they perish not, and does not communicate the same 
strength to the latter, that they may be examples of inconstancy. 

IV. They urge further, that exhortations are given in vain, 
that the use of admonitions is superfluous, and that reproofs 
are ridiculous, if it be not in the power of the sinner to obey. 
When similar objections were formerly made to Augustine, he 
was obliged to write his treatise On Correction and Grace ; in 
which, though he copiously refutes them, he calls his adversa- 
ries to this conclusion: ‘“‘O man, in the commandnient learn what 
is your duty: in correction learn, that through your own fault 
you have it not: in prayer learn whence you may receive what 
you wish to enjoy.”’ There is nearly the same argument in the 
treatise On the Spirit and Letter, in which he maintains that 
God does not regulate the precepts of his law by the ability of 
men, but when he has commanded what is right, freely gives 
to his elect ability to perform it. This is not a subject that 
requires a prolix discussion. First, we are not alone in this 
cause, but have the support of Christ and all the Apostles. Let 
our opponents consider how they can obtain the superiority in 
a contest with such antagonists. Does Christ, who declares 
that without him we can do nothing, (0) on that account the 
less reprehend and punish those who without him do what is 
evil? Does he therefore relax in his exhortations to every man 
to practise good works? How severely does Paul censure the 
Corinthians for their neglect of charity!(p) Yet he earnestly 
prays that charity may be given them by the Lord. In his 


(0) John xy. 5. (p) 1 Cor. iii. 3. 


288 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1 


Epistle to the Romans he declares that ‘it is not of him that 
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth 
mercy :’’ (g) yet afterwards he refrains not from the use of 
admonition, exhortation, and reproof. Why do they not, there- 
fore, remonstrate with the Lord, not to lose his labour in such 
amanner, by requiring of men those things which he alone 
can bestow, and punishing those things which are committed 
for want of his grace?) Why do they not admonish Paul to 
spare those who are unable to will or run without the previous 
mercy of God, of which they are now destitute? As though 
truly the Lord has not the best reason for his doctrine, which 
readily presents itself to those who religiously seek it. Paul 
clearly shows how far doctrine, exhortation, and reproof, can 
of themselves avail towards producing a change of heart, when 
he says that “neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he 
that watereth; but” that the efficacy is solely from ‘ God 
that giveth the increase.”’ (7) 'Thus we see that Moses severely 
sanctions the precepts of the law, and the Prophets earnestly 
urge and threaten transgressors ; whilst, nevertheless, they ac- 
knowledge, that men never begin to be wise till a heart is 
given them to understand ; that it is the peculiar work of God 
to circumcise the heart, and instead of a stony heart to give a 
heart of flesh; to inscribe his Jaw in men’s minds; in a word, 
‘to render his doctrine effectual by a renovation of the soul. 

VY. What, then, it will be inquired, is the use of exhortations? 
I reply, If the impious despise them with obstinate hearts, 
they will serve for a testimony against them, when they shall 
come to the tribunal of the Lord; and even in the present 
state they wound their consciences; for however the most 
audacious person may deride them, he cannot disapprove of - 
them in his heart. But it will be said, What can a miserable 
sinner do, if the softness of heart, which is necessary to obe- 
dience, be denied him? I ask, What excuse can he plead, 
seeing that he cannot impute the hardness of his heart to any 
one but himself? The impious, therefore, who are ready, if 
possible, to ridicule the Divine precepts and exhortations, are, 
in spite of their own inclinations, confounded by their power. 
But the principal utility should be considered in regard to the 
faithful, in whom as the Lord performs all things by his Spirit, 
so he neglects not the instrumentality of his word, but uses it 
with great efficacy. Let it be allowed, then, as it ought to be, 
that all the strength of the pious consists in the grace of God, 
according to this expression of the Prophet: “I will give them 
a new heart, that they may walk in my statutes.” (s) But you 
will object, Why are they admonished of their duty, and not 


(q) Rom. ix. 16. (r) 1 Cor. iii. 7. (s) Ezek. xi. 19, 20. 


UHAP. v.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 289 | 


rather left to the direction of the Spirit? Why are they im- 
portuned with exhortations, when they cannot make more 
haste than is produced by the impulse of the Spirit? Why 
are they chastised, if they: have ever deviated from the right 
way, seeing that they erred through the necessary infirmity of 
the flesh? I reply, Who art thou, O man, that wouldest impose 
laws upon God? If it be his will to prepare us by exhortation 
for the reception of this grace, by which obedience to the ex- 
hortation is produced, what have you to censure in this econo- 
my? If exhortations and reproofs were of no other advantage 
to the pious, than to convince them of sin, they ought not on 
that account to be esteemed wholly useless. Now, since, by 
the internal operation of the Spirit, they are most effectual to 
inflame the heart with a love of righteousness, to shake off 
sloth, to destroy the pleasure and poisonous sweetness of 
iniquity, and, on the contrary, to render it hateful and burden- 
some, who can dare to reject them as superfluous? If any 
one would desire a plainer answer, let him take it thus: The 
operations of God on his elect are twofold — internally, by his 
Spirit, externally, by his word. By his Spirit illuminating 
their minds and forming their hearts to the love and cultivation 
of righteousness, he makes them new creatures. By his word 
he excites them to desire, seek, and obtain the same renovation. 
In both he displays the efficacy of his power, according to the 
mode of his dispensation. When he addresses the same word 
to the reprobate, though it produces not their correction, yet 
he makes it effectual for another purpose, that they may be 
confounded by the testimony of their consciences now, and be 
rendered more inexcusable at the day of judgment. Thus 
Christ, though he pronounces that ‘‘no man can come to him, 
except the Father draw him,” and that the elect come when 
they have “heard and learned of the Father,” (¢) yet himself 
neglects not the office of a teacher, but with his own mouth 
sedulously invites those who need the internal teachings of 
the Holy Spirit to enable them to derive any benefit from his 
instructions. With respect to the reprobate, Paul suggests that | 
teaching is not useless, because it is to them “the savour of 
death unto death,” but ‘a sweet savour unto God.” (v) 

VI. Our adversaries are very laburious in collecting testi- 
monies of Scripture ; and this with a view, since they cannot 
refute us with their weight, to overwhelm us with their num- 
ber. But as in battles, when armies come to close combat, the 
weak multitude, whatever pomp and ostentation they may 
display, are soon defeated and routed, so it will be very easy 
fer us to vanquish them, with all their multitude. For as all 


(t) John vi. 44, 45.  (v) 2 Cor. ii. 16. 
VOL. 1. ov 


290 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 1 


the passages, which they abuse in their opposition to us, when 
properly classed and distributed, centre in a very few topics, 
one answer will be sufficient for many of them; it will not be 
necessary to dwell on a particular explication of each. Their 
principal argument they derive from the precepts; which they 
suppose to be so proportioned to our ability, that whatever they 
can be proved to require, it necessarily follows we are capable 
of performing. They proceed, therefore, to a particular detail 
of them, and by them measure the extent of our strength. 
Hither, say they, God mocks us, when he commands holiness, 
piety, obedience, chastity, love, and meekness, and when he 
forbids impurity, idolatry, unchastity, anger, robbery, pride, 
and the like; or he requires only such things as we have 
power to perform. Now, almost all the precepts which they 
collect, may be distributed into three classes. Some require 
the first conversion to God ; others simply relate to the observa- 
tion of the law; others enjoin perseverance in the grace of 
God already received. Let us first speak of them all in general, 
and then proceed to the particulars. ‘To represent the ability 
of man as coéxtensive with the precepts of the Divine law, has 
indeed for a long time not been unusual, and has some appear- 
ance of plausibility; but it has proceeded from the grossest 
ignorance of the law.. For those who think it an enormous 
crime to say that the observation of the law is impossible, 
insist on this very cogent argument, that otherwise the law 
was given in vain. For they argue just as if Paul had never 
said any thing concerning the law. But, pray, what is the 
meaning of these expressions — ‘‘' The law was added because 
of transgressions;”’ “by the law is the knowledge of sin;” 
“the law worketh wrath ;” “the law entered that the offence 
might abound?” (w) Do they imply a necessity of its being 
limited to our ability, that it might not be given in vain? Do 
they not rather show that it was placed far beyond our ability, 
in order to convince us of our impotence? According to the 
definition of the same Apostle, ‘the end of the commandment 
is charity.””(2) But when he wishes the minds of the Thes- 
salonians to “abound in love,’ (y) he plainly acknowledges 
that the law sounds in our ears in vain, unless God inspire the 
principles of it into our hearts. 

VII. Indeed, if the Scripture taught only that the law isthe 
rule of life, to which our conduct ought to be conformed, 1 
would immediately accede to their opinion. But since it care- 
fully and perspicuously states to us various uses of the law, it 
will be best to consider the operation of the law in man accord- 
ing to that exposition. As far as relates to the present argument, 


(w) Gal. iii. 19. Rom. iii. 20; iv. 15; v. 20. 
(z) 1 Tim. 1. 5. (y) 1 Thess. iii. 12. 


CHAP. V.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 29} 


when it has prescribed any thing to be performed by us, it 
teaches that the power of obedience proceeds from the good- 
ness of God, and therefore invites us to pray that it may be 
given us. If there were only a commandment, and no pro- 
mise, there would be a trial of the sufficiency of our strength to 
obey the commandment; but since the commands are con- 
nected with promises, which declare that we must derive not 
only subsidiary power, but our whole strength, from the assist- 
ance of Divine grace, they furnish abundant evidence that we 
are not only unequal to the observation of the law, but alto- 
gether incapable of it. Wherefore let them no more urge the 
proportion of our ability to the precepts of the law, as though 
the Lord had regulated the standard of righteousness, which 
he designed to give in the law, according to the measure of our 
‘imbecility. It should rather be concluded from the promises, 
ow unprepared we are of ourselves, since we stand in such 
universal need of his grace. But will it, say they, be credited 
by any, that the Lord addressed his law to stocks and stones? 
I reply, that no one will attempt to inculcate such a notion. 
For neither are the impious stocks or stones, when they are 
taught by the law the contrariety of their dispositions to God, 
and are convicted of guilt by the testimony of their own minds; 
nor the pious, when, admonished of their own impotence, they 
have recourse to the grace of God. ‘To this purpose are 
the following passages from Augustine: “God gives com- 
mands which we cannot perform, that we may know what 
we ought to request of him. The utility of the precepts is 
great, if only so much be given to free will, that the grace of 
God may receive the greater honour. Faith obtains what the 
law commands; and the law therefore commands, that faith 
may obtain that which is commanded by the law: moreover 
God requires faith itself of us, and finds not what he requires, 
unless he has given what he finds.” Again: ‘ Let God give 
what he enjoins, and let him enjoin what he pleases.” 

VUL. This will more clearly appear in an examination of 
the three kinds of precepts which we have already mentioned. 
The Lord, both in the law and in the prophets, frequently 
commands us to be converted to him;(z) but the Prophet, on 
the other hand, says, ‘‘ Turn thou me, and I shall be turned.” 
‘“ After that I was turned, I repented,” &c. (a) He commands 
ns to circumcise our hearts; but he announces by Moses, that 
‘ths circumcision is the work of his own hand.(b) He fre- 
quently requires newness of heart ; but elsewhere declares that 
this is his own gift. (c) ‘‘ What God promises,” Augustine says, 
‘we do not perform ourselves through free will or nature; but 


z) Joel ii. 12. (b) Deut. x. 16, and xxx. 6. 
a) Jer xxxi. 18, 19. (c) Jer. iv.4. Ezek. xxxvi. 26. 


292, INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 1. 


he does it himself by his grace.”’ And this is the observation to 
which he himself assigns the fifth place in his enumeration of 
Ticonius’s rules of Christian doctrine; that we should make a 
proper distinction between the law and the promises, or be- 
tween the commandments and grace. ‘This may suffice, in 
answer to those who from the precepts infer an ability in man 
to obey them, that they may destroy the grace of God, by 
which those very precepts are fulfilled. The precepts of the 
second class are simple, enjoining on us the worship of God, 
constant submission to his will, observance of his commands, 
and adherence to his doctrine. But there are innumerable pas- 
sages, which prove that the highest degree of righteousness, 
sanctity, piety, and purity, capable of being attained, is his 
own gift. Of the third class is that exhortation of Paul and 
Barnabas to the faithful, mentioned by Luke, ‘‘ to continue in 
the grace of God.” (d) But whence the grace of perseverance 
should be sought, the same Apostle informs us, when he says, 
‘Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord.” (e) In another 
place he cautions us to “grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, 
whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption.” (f) But 
because what he there requires could not be performed by men, 
he prays for the Thessalonians, “‘ that our God would count 
them worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure 
of his goodness, and the work of faith with power.” (g) 
Thus, also, in the Second: Epistle to the Corinthians, treating 
of alms, he frequently commends their benevolent and pious 
disposition;(A) yet a little after he gives thanks to God 
for having inclined the heart of Titus to ‘‘accept” or un- 
dertake ‘‘the exhortation.” If Titus could not even use 
his own tongue to exhort others without having been prompted 
by God, how should others have been inclined to act, unless 
God himself had directed their hearts? 

IX. Our more subtle adversaries cavil at all these testimo- 
nies, because there is no impediment, they say, that prevents 
our exerting our own ability, and God assisting our weak ef- 
forts. They adduce also passages from the Prophets, where 
the accomplishment of our conversion seems to be divided 
equally between God and us. ‘ ‘Turn ye unto me, and I will 
turn unto you.” (7) What assistance we receive from the Lord 
has already been shown, and needs not to be repeated here. 
I wish only this single point to be conceded to me, that it is in 
vain, to infer our possession of ability to fulfil the law from 
God’s command to us to obey it; since it is evident, that for 
the performance of all the Divine precepts, the grace of the 


- (d) Acts xiii. 43. (f) Eph. iv. 30. (kh) 2 Cor. viii. 1, &e 
(e) Eph. vi. 10. (g) 2 Thess. i. 11. (t) Zech. i. 3. 


cHaP. v.] CHRISTIAN nELIGION. 293 


Legislator is both necessary for us, and promised to us; and 
hence it follows, that at least more is required of us than we 
are capable of performing. Nor is it possible for any cavils to 
explain away that passage of Jeremiah, which assures us, that 
the covenant of God, made with his ancient people, was frus- 
trated because it was merely a literal one; (4) and that it can 
only be confirmed by the influence of the Spirit, who forms the 
heart to obedience. Nor does their error derive any support 
from this passage: ‘Turn ye unto me, and I will turn unto 
you.” For this denotes, not that turning of God in which he 
renovates our hearts to repentance, but that in which he de- 
clares his benevolence and kindness by external prosperity ; 
as by adversity he sometimes manifests his displeasure. When 
the people of Israel, therefore, after having been harassed with 
miseries and calamities under various forms, complained that 
God was departed from them, he replies that his benignity will 
not fail them if they return to rectitude of life, and to himself, 
who is the standard of righteousness. The passage, then, is 
miserably perverted, when it is made to represent the work of 
conversion as divided between God and men. We have ob- 
served the greater brevity on these points, because it will be a 
more suitable place for this argument when we treat of the Law. 

X. The second description of arguments is nearly allied to 
the first. ‘They allege the promises, in which God covenants 
with our will; such as, ‘‘Seek good, and not evil, that ye 
may live.” ‘If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the 
good of the land; but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be de- 
voured with the sword; for the mouth of the Lord hath spo- 
ken it.” (7) Again: “If thou wilt put away thine abominations 
out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.” “If thou shalt 
hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to ob- 
serve and to do all his commandments which I command thee 
this day, the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all 
nations of the earth;” (m) and other similar passages. They - 
consider it an absurdity and mockery, that the benefits which 
the Lord offers in the promises are referred to our will, unless 
it be in our power either to confirm or to frustrate them. And 
truly it is very easy to amplify this subject with eloquent com- 
plaints, that we are cruelly mocked by the Lord, when he an- 
nounces that his benignity depends on our will, if that will be 
not in our own power; that this would be egregious liberality 
in God, to present his benefits to us in such a manner, that we 
should have no power to enjoy them; and that there must be 
a strange certainty in his promises, if they depend on a thing 
impossible, so that they can never be fulfilled. - Concerning 


‘(k) Jer. xxxi. 32. (l) Amos v.14. Isaiah i. 19, 20. 
(m) Jer.iv.1. Deut. xxviii. 1 


294, INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 11. 


promises of this kind, to which a condition is annexed, we 
shall speak in another place, and evince that there is no absur- 
dity in the impossibility of their completion. With respect to 
the present question, I deny that God is cruel or insincere to us, 
when he invites us to merit his favours, though he knows us to 
be altogether incapable of doing this. For as the promises are 
offered equally to the faithful and to the impious, they have 
their use with them both. ~As by the precepts God disturbs 
the consciences of the impious, that they may not enjoy too 
much pleasure in sin without any recollection of his judgments, 
so in the promises he calls them to attest how unworthy they 
are of his kindness. For who can deny that it is most equita- 
ble and proper for the Lord to bless those who worship him, 
and severely to punish the despisers of his majesty? God acts, 
therefore, in a right and orderly manner, when, addressing the 
impious, who are bound with the fetters of sin, he adds to the 
promises this condition, that when they shall have departed 
from their wickedness, they shall then, and not till then, enjoy 
his favours; even for this sole reason, that they may know that 
they are deservedly excluded from those benefits which belong 
to the worshippers of the true God. On the other hand, since 
he designs by all means to stimulate the faithful to implore his 
grace, it will not be at all strange, if he tries in his promises 
also, what we have shown he does with considerable effect in 
his precepts. Being instructed by the precepts concerning the 
will of God, we are apprized of our misery, in having our hearts 
so completely averse to it; and are at the same time excited to 
invoke his Spirit, that we may be-directed by him into the 
right way. But because our sluggishness is not sufficiently 
roused by the precepts, God adds his promises, to allure us by 
their sweetness to the love of his commands. Now, in propor- 
tion to our increased love of righteousness will be the increase 
of our fervour in seeking the grace of God. See how, in these 
- addresses, ‘‘If ye be willing,” “If ye be obedient,’’ the Lord 
neither attributes to us an unlimited power to will and to obey, 
nor yet mocks us on account of our impotence. 

XI. The third class of arguments also has a great affinity 
with the preceding. For they produce passages in which God 
reproaches an ungrateful people, that it was wholly owing to 
their own fault that they did not receive blessings of all kinds 
from his indulgent hand. Of this kind are the following pas- 
sages: ‘The Amalekites and the Canaanites are there before 
you, and ye shall fall by the sword; because ye are turned 
away from the Lord.” (x) ‘“ Because I called you, but ye an- 
swered not, therefore will I do unto this house as I have done 


(n) Numb. xiv. 43 


cHaP. v.| CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 295 


to Shiloh.” (0) Again: “This is a nation that obeyeth not 
the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction: the 
Lord hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.” (p) 
Again: “They obeyed not thy voice, neither walked in thy 
law; they have done nothing of all that thou commandedst 
them to do: therefore thoy hast caused all this evil to come 
upon them.” (q) How, say they, could such reproaches be ap- 
plicable to those who might immediately reply, It is true that 
we desired prosperity and dreaded adversity ; but our not obey- 
ing the Lord, or hearkening to his voice, in order to obtain 
good and to avoid evil, has been owing to our want of liberty, 
and subjection to the dominion of sin. It is in vain, therefore, 
to reproach us with evils, which we had no power to avoid. 
In answer to this, leaving the pretext of necessity, which is 
but a weak and futile plea, I ask whether they can exculpate 
themselves from all guilt. For if they are convicted of any 
fault, the Lord justly reproaches them with their perverseness, 
as the cause of their not having experienced the advantage of 
his clemency. Let them answer, then, if they can deny that 
their own perverse will was the cause of their obstinacy. If 
they find the source of the evil within themselves, why do 
they so earnestly inquire after extraneous causes, that they 
may not appear to have been the authors of their own ruin? 
But if it be true that sinners are deprived of the favours of God, 
and chastised with his punishments, for their own sin, and 
only for their own, there is great reason why they should hear 
those reproaches from his mouth; that if they obstinately per- 
sist in their crimes, they may learn in their calamities rather to 
accuse and detest their iniquity, than to charge God with un- 
righteous cruelty ; that if they have not cast off all docility, 
they may become weary of their sins, the demerits of which 
they see to be misery and ruin, and may return into the good 
way, acknowledging in a serious confession the very thing for 
which the Lord rebukes them. And that those reproofs, which’ 
are quoted from the Prophets, have produced this beneficial 
effect on the faithful, is evident from the solemn prayer of 
Daniel, given us in his ninth chapter. Of the, former use of 
them we find an example in the Jews, to whom Jeremiah is 
commanded to declare the cause of their miseries; though 
nothing could befall them, otherwise than the Lord had foretold. 
“Thou shalt speak all these words unto them ; but they will not 
hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will 
not answer thee.” (7) For what purpose, then, it will be asked, 
did they speak to persons that were deaf? It was in order 
that, in spite of their disinclination and aversion, they might 


(0) Jer. vii. 13, 14. (p) Jer. vii. 28, 29. (q) Jer. xxxii. 23. (r) Jer. vii. 27 


296 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK 11. 


know what was declared to them to be true; that it was an 
abominable sacrilege to transfer to God the guilt of their crimes, 
which belonged solely to themselves. With these few solu- 
tions, we may very easily despatch the immense multitude of 
testimonies, which the enemies of the grace of God are accus- 
tomed to collect, both from the precepts of the law, and from 
the expostulations directed to transgressors of it, im order to es- 
tablish the idol of free will. In one psalm the Jews are stigma- 
tized as ‘‘a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that 
set not their heart aright.”’ (s) In another, the Psalmist exhorts 
the men of his age to “ harden not their hearts ;” (¢) which im- 
plies, that all the guilt of rebellion lies in the perverseness of 
men. But it is absurd to infer from this passage that the heart 
is equally flexible to either side; whereas “the preparation ” 
of it is ‘“‘from the Lord.” (v) ‘The Psalmist says, “I have in- 
clined my heart to perform thy statutes ;” (w) because he had 
devoted himself to the service of God without any reluctance, 
but with a cheerful readiness of mind. Yet he boasts not of 
being himself the author of this inclination, which in the same 
psalm he acknowledges to be the gift of God. («) We should 
remember, therefore, the admonition of Paul, when he commands 
the faithful to “‘ work out” their ‘own salvation with fear and 
trembling; for it is God which worketh in” them ‘both to 
will and to do.” (y) He assigns them a part to perform, that 
they may not indulge themselves in carnal negligence; but by 
inculcating ‘fear and trembling,” he humbles them, and re- 
minds them that this very thing, which they are commanded 
to do, is the peculiar work of God. In this he plamly suggests 
that the faithful act, if I may be allowed the expression, pas- 
sively, imasmuch as they are furnished with strength from 
heaven, that they may arrogate nothing at all to themselves. 
Wherefore, when Peter exhorts us to ‘‘add to” our ‘ faith, vir- 
tue,”’ (z) he does not allot us an under part to be performed, as 
‘though we could do any thing separately, of ourselves; he 
only arouses the indolence of the flesh, by which faith itself is 
frequently extinguished. ‘'T’o the same purpose is the exhorta- 
tion of Paul: “Quench not the Spirit;” (a) for slothfulness 
gradually prevails over the faithful, unless it be corrected. But 
if any one should infer from this, that it is at his own option to 
cherish the light offered him, his ignorance will easily be refu- 
ted; since this diligence which Paul requires, proceeds only 
from God. For we are also frequently commanded to “ cleanse 
ourselves from all filthiness,” (b) whilst the Spirit elaims the 
office of sanctifying us exclusively to himself. In short, that 


(s) Psalm Ixxviii. 8. (w) Psalm cxix. 112. (z) 2 Peter i. 5. 
(t) Psalm xev. 8. (x) Psalm exix. 33—40. (a) 1 Thess. v. 19. 
(v) Prov. xvi.1l.  - (y) Phil. ii. 12. (6) 2 Cor. vii. 1. 


CHAP. ¥.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 297 


what properly belongs to God is, by concession, transferred to 
us, is plain from the words of John: “ He that is begotten of 
God, keepeth himself.” (c) 'The preachers of free will lay 
hold of this expression, as though we were saved partly by the 
Divine power, partly by our own; as though we did not re- 
ceive from heaven this very preservation which the Apostle 
mentions. Wherefore also Christ prays that his Father would 
“keep” us “from evil;” (d) and we know that the pious, n 
their warfare against Satan, obtain the victory by no other 
arms than those which are furnished by God. ‘Therefore Pe- 
ter, having enjoined us to “ purify” our ‘souls, in obeying the 
truth,” immediately adds, as a correction, “through the Spi- 
rit.” (e) Finally, the impotence of all human strength in the 
spiritual conflict is briefly demonstrated by John when he says, 
‘“‘ Whosoever is born of God cannot sin; for his seed remaineth 
in him:” (f) and in another place he adds the reason, that 
“this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our 
faith.” (£) 

- XII. There is also a testimony cited from the law of Moses, 
which appears directly repugnant to our solution. For, after 
having published the law, he makes the following solemn de- 
claration to the people: ‘This commandment, which I com- 
mand thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far 
off: it is not in heaven: but the word is very nigh unto thee, 
in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.” (h) 
If these expressions be understood merely of the precepts, I 
grant that they have much weight in the present argument. 
For although we might easily elude their force, by saying that 
they treat of the facility and promptitude, not of observance, 
but of knowledge, yet still perhaps they might leave some 
doubt. But the Apostle, in whose expositions there is no am- 
biguity, removes all our doubts, by affirming that Moses here 
spake of the doctrine of the gospel. (¢) But if any one should 
obstinately contend, that Paul has violently perverted the pas- 
sage from its genuine meaning, by applying it to the gospel, 
although his presumption could not be acquitted of impiety, 
yet there is enough to refute him, independently of the autho- 
rity of the Apostle. For, if Moses spoke only of the precepts, 
he was deceiving the people with the vainest confidence. For 
would they not have precipitated themselves into ruin, if they 
had attempted the observance of the law in their own strength, 
as a thing of no difficulty? What, then, becomes of the very 
obvious facility with which the law may be observed, when 
there appears no access to it but over a fatal precipice? Where- 


(c) 1 John v. 18. (f) 1 John iii. 9. (hk) Deut. xxx. 11—14. 
(d) John xvii. 15. (g) 1 John v. 4. (t) Rom. x. 8. 
(e) 1 Peter i. 22 


VOL. I. 38 


298 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 11 


fore nothing is more certain, than that Moses in these words 
comprehended the covenant of mercy, which he had promul- 
gated together with the precepts of the law. For in a pre- 
ceding verse he had taught that our hearts must be circumcised 
by God, in order that we may love him. (k) Therefore he 
placed this facility, of which he afterwards speaks, not in the 
strength of man, but in the assistance and protection of the 
Holy Spirit, who powerfully accomplishes his work in our in- 
firmity. However, the passage is not to be understood simply 
of the precepts, but rather of the promises of the gospel, which 
are so far from maintaining an ability in us to obtain righteous- 
ness, that they prove us to be utterly destitute of it. Paul, 
considering the same, proves by this testimony that salvation 
is proposed to us in the gospel, not under that hard, difficult, 
and impossible condition, prescribed to us in the law, which 
pronounces it attainable only by those who have fulfilled all 
the commandments, but under a condition easily and readily to 
be performed. Therefore this testimony contributes nothing 
to support the liberty of the human will. 

XIII. Some other passages also are frequently objected, 
which show that God sometimes tries men by withdrawing 
the assistance of his grace, and waits to see what course they 
will pursue; as in Hosea: “I will go and return to my place, 
till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face.” (2) It 
would be ridiculous, they say, for the Lord to consider, whether 
Israel would seek his face, unless their minds were flexible, 
capable of inclining either way, according to their own pleasure; 
as if it were not very common for God, in the Prophets, to 
represent himself as despising and rejecting his people, till they 
should amend their lives. But what will our adversaries infer 
from such threats? If they maintain, that those who are de- 
serted by God, are capable of converting themselves, they 
oppose the uniform declarations of Scripture. If they acknow- 
ledge that the grace of God is necessary to conversion, what is 
their controversy with us? But they will reply, that they 
concede its necessity in such a sense as to maintain that man 
still retains some power. How do they prove it? Certainly 
not from this or any similar passages. For it is one thing to 
depart from a man, to observe what he will do when forsaken 
and left to himself, and another to assist his little strength in 
proportion to his imbecility. What, then, it will be inquired, 
is implied in such forms of expression? TIreply, that the im- 
port of them is just as if God had said, Since admonitions, ex- 
hortations, and reproofs, produce no good effect on this rebellious 
people, I will withdraw myself for a lttle while, and silently 


(k) Deut. xxx. 6. (Y) Hos. v. 18. 


CHAP. V. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 299 


leave them to affliction. I will see whether, at some future 
period, after a series of calamities, they will remember me, and 
seek my face. ‘The departure of the Lord signifies the removal 
of his word. His observing what men will do, signifies his 
concealing himself in silence, and exercising them for a season 
with various afflictions. He does both to humble us the more ; 
for we should sooner be confounded than corrected with the 
scourges of adversity, unless he rendered us docile by his Spirit. 
Now, when the Lord, offended, and, as it were, wearied by our 
extreme obstinacy, leaves us for a time, by the removal of his 
word, in which he is accustomed to manifest his presence with 
us, and makes the experiment, what we shall do in his absence, 
— it is falsely inferred from this, that there is some power of free 
will, which he observes and proves; since he acts in this man- 
ner with no other design than to bring us to a sense and ac- 
knowledgment of our own nothingness. 

XIV. They argue also from the manner of expression which 
is invariably observed, both in the Scripture and in the com- 
mon conversation of mankind. For good actions are called 
our own, and we are said to perform what is holy and pleasing 
to the Lord, as well as to commit sins. But if sins be justly 
imputed to us, as proceeding from ourselves, certainly some 
share ought to be, for the same reason, assigned to us also in 
works of righteousness. For it would be absurd that we 
should be said to do those things, to the performance of which, 
being incapable of any exertion of our own, we were impelled 
by God, as so many stones. Wherefore, though we allow the 
grace of God the preeminence, yet these expressions indicate 
that our own endeavours hold at least the second place. If it 
were only alleged, that good works are called our own, I 
would reply, that the bread which we pray to God to give us, 
is called ours. What will they prove by this term, but that 
what otherwise by no means belongs to us, becomes ours 
through the benignity and gratuitous munificence of God? 
Therefore let them either ridicule the same absurdity in the 
Lord’s prayer, or no longer esteem it ridiculous, that good 
works are denominated ours, in which we have no propriety 
but from the liberality of God. But there is rather more force 
in what follows; that the Scripture frequently affirms that we 
ourselves worship God, work righteousness, obey the law, and 
perform good works. 'These being the proper offices of the 
understanding and will, how could they justly be referred to 
the Spirit, and at the same time be attributed to us, if there 
were not some union of our exertions with the grace of God? 
We shall easily extricate ourselves from these objections, if we 
properly consider the manner in which the Spirit of the Lord 
Operates in the saints. The similitude with which they try to 


300 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 11. 


cast an odium on our sentiments, is quite foreign to the sub- 
ject; for who is so senseless as to suppose that there is no 
difference between impelling a man, and throwing a stone? 
Nor does any such consequence follow from our doctrine. 
We rank among the natural powers of man, approving, re- 
jecting ; willing, nilling; attempting, resisting; that is, a 
power to approve vanity, and to reject true excellence; to 
will what is evil, to refuse what is good; to attempt iniquity, 
and to resist righteousness. What concern has the Lord in 
this? If it be his will to use this depravity as an instrument 
of his wrath, he directs and appoints it according to his plea- 
sure, in order to execute his good work by means of a wickea 
hand. Shall we, then, compare a wicked man who is thus sub- 
servient to the Divine power, while he only studies to gratify 
his own corrupt inclination, to a stone which is hurled by an 
extrinsic impulse, and driven along without any motion, sense, 
or will of its own? We perceive what a vast difference there 
is. But how does the Lord operate in good men, to whom the 
question principally relates? When he erects his kingdom 
within them, he by his Spirit restrains their will, that it may — 
not be hurried away by unsteady and violent passions, accord- 
ing to the propensity of nature; that it may be inclined to 
holiness and righteousness, he bends, composes, forms, and 
directs it according to the rule of his own righteousness ; that 
it may not stagger or fall, he establishes and confirms it by the 
power of his Spirit. For which reason Augustine says, “* You 
will reply to me, Then we are actuated; we do not act. Yes, 
you both act and are actuated; and you act well, when you 
are actuated by that which is good. The Spirit of God, who 
actuates you, assists those who act, and calls himself a helper, 
because you also perform something.’ In the first clause he 
inculcates that the agency of man is not destroyed by the in- 
fluence of the Spirit; because the will, which is guided to 
aspire to what is good, belongs to his nature. But the in- 
ference which he immediately subjoins, from the term help, 
that we also perform something, we should not understand 
in such a sense, as though he attributed any thing to us in- 
dependently ; but in order to avoid encouraging us in indo- 
lence, he reconciles the Divine agency with ours in this way ; 
that to will is from nature, to will what is good is from grace. 
Therefore he had just before said, “‘ Without the assistance of 
God, we shall be not only unable to conquer, but even to 
contend.” 

XV. Hence it appears that the grace of God, in the sense 
in which this word is used when we treat of regeneration, is 
the rule of the Spirit for directing and governing the human 
will. He cannot govern it unless he correct, reform, and reno- 


CHAP. V.| CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 301 


vate it; whence we say that the commencement of regenera- 
tion is an abolition of what is from ourselves; nor unless he 
also excite, actuate, impel, support, and restrain it; whence 
we truly assert, that all the actions which proceed from this are 
entirely of the Spirit. At the same time, we fully admit the 
truth of what Augustine teaches, that the will is not destroyed 
by grace, but rather repaired; for these two things are per- 
fectly consistent —that the human will may be said to be 
repaired, when, by the correction of its depravity and perverse- 
hess, it is directed according to the true standard of righteous- 
ness; and also that a new will may be said to be created in 
man, because the natural will is so vitiated and corrupted, that 
it needs to be formed entirely anew. Now, there is no reason 
why we may not justly be said to perform that which the 
Spirit of God performs in us, although our own will contributes 
nothing of itself, independently of his grace. And, therefore, 
we should remember what we have before cited from Augus- 
tine, that many persons labour in vain to find in the human 
will some good, properly its own. For whatever mixture men 
study to add from the power of free will to the grace of God, 
is only a corruption of it; just as if any one should dilute 
good wine with dirty or bitter water. But although whatever 
good there is in the human will, proceeds wholly from the 
internal influence of the Spirit, yet because we have a natural 
faculty of willing, we are, not without reason, said to do those 
things, the praise of which God justly claims to himself; first, 
because whatever God does in us, becomes ours by his be- 
nignity, provided we do not apprehend it to originate from 
ourselves; secondly, because the understanding is ours, the 
will is ours, and the effort is ours, which are all directed by 
him to that which is good. 

XVI. The other testimonies, which they rake together from 
every quarter, will not much embarrass even persons of mo- 
derate capacities, who have well digested the answers already 
given. ‘They quote this passage from Genesis: ‘‘ Unto thee 
shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him; () or, as 
they would translate the words, ‘‘ Subject to thee shall be its 
appetite, and thou shalt rule over it ;’’ which they explain to 
relate to sin, as though the Lord promised Cain, that the 
power of sin should not obtain dominion over his mind, if he 
would labour to overcome it. But we say that it 1s more 
agreeable to the tenor of the context, to understand it to be 
spoken concerning Abel. For the design of God in it is to 
prove the iniquity of that envy, which Cain had conceived 
against his brother. This he does by two reasons: first, that 


(m) Gen. iv. 7. 


302 INSTITUTES OF THE [RBoox 41 


it was in vain for him to meditate crimes in order to excel his 
brother in the sight of God, with whom no honour is given 
but to righteousness; secondly, that he was extremely un- 
grateful for the favours God had already conferred on him, 
since he could not bear his brother, even though subject to his 
authority. But that we may not appear to adopt this explana- 
tion, merely because the other is unfavourable to our ‘tenets, 
let us admit that God spake concerning sin. If it be so, then 
what the Lord there declares, is either promised or commanded 
by him. If it be acommand, we have already demonstrated 
that it affords no proof of the power of men: if it be a promise, 
where is the completion of the promise, seeing that Cain fell 
under the dominion of sin, over which he ought to have pre- 
vailed? They will say, that the promise includes a tacit con- 
dition, as though it had been declared to him that he should 
obtain the victory if he would contend for it; but who can 
admit these subterfuges? For if this dominion be referred to 
sin, the speech is doubtless a command, expressive, not of our 
ability, but of our duty, which remains our duty even though 
it exceed our ability. But the subject itself, and grammatical 
propriety, require a comparison to be made between Cain and 
Abel ; in which the elder brother would not have been placed 
below the younger, if he had not degraded himself by his own 
wickedness. 

XVII. They adduce also the testimony of the Apostle, who 
says, that ‘it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that run- 
neth, but of God that showeth mercy ; ” (7) whence they 
conclude, that there is something in the will and endeavour, 
which, though ineffectual of itself, is rendered successful by 
the assistance of the Divine mercy. But if they would soberly 
examine the subject there treated by Paul, they would not so 
inconsiderately pervert this passage. I know that they can 
allege the suffrages of Origen and Jerome in defence of their 
exposition ; and in opposition to them, I could produce that of 
Augustine. But their opinions are of no importance to us if 
we can ascertain what was the meaning of Paul. He is there 
teaching, that salvation is provided for them alone, whom the 
Lord favours with his mercy; but that ruin and perdition 
await all those whom he has not chosen. He had shown, by 
the example of Pharaoh, the condition of the reprobate ; and 
had confirmed the certainty of gratuitous election by the tes- 
timony of Moses: ‘‘I will have mercy on whom I will have 
mercy.’’ His conclusion is, that ‘it is not of him that willeth, 
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.” 
If this be understood to imply that our will and endeavour are 


(n) Rom. ix. 16. 


* 


CHAP. v.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 30% 


not sufficient, because they are not equal to so great a work, 
Paul has expressed himself with great impropriety. Away, there- 
fore, with these sophisms: “It is not of him that willeth, nor of 
him that runneth ;” therefore there is some willing and some run- 
ning. For the meaning of Paul is more simple —It is neither 
our willing nor our running, which procures for us a way of 
salvation, but solely the mercy of God. For he expresses here 
the same sentiment as he does to Titus, when he says, “that 
the kindness and love of God towards man appeared, not by 
works of righteousness which we have done, but according to 
his mercy.” (0) 'The very persons, who argue that Paul, in 
denying that it is of him that willeth or of him that runneth, im- 
plies that there is some willing and some running, would not 
allow me to use the same mode of reasoning, that we have 
done some good works, because Paul denies that we have ob- 
tained the favour of God by any works which we have done. 
But if they perceive a flaw in this argumentation, let them 
Open their eyes, and they will perceive a similar fallacy in 
their own. For the argument on which Augustine rests the 
dispute is unanswerable: ‘If it be said, that it is not of him 
that willeth, nor of him that runneth, merely because neither 
our willing nor our running is sufficient, it may, on the con- 
trary, be retorted, that it is not of the mercy of God, because 
that does not act alone.” (p) The latter position being absurd, 
Augustine justhy concludes the meaning of this passage to be, 
that there is no good will in man, unless it be prepared by the 
Lord; not but that we ought to will and to run, but because 
God works in us both the one and the other. With similar 
want of judgment, some pervert this declaration of Paul, ‘‘We 
are labourers together with God ; ” (q) which, without doubt, is 
restricted solely to ministers, who are denominated ‘ workers 
with him,” not that they contribute any thing of themselves, 
but because God makes use of their agency, after he has qua- 
lified them and furnished them with the necessary talents. 
XVIII. They produce a passage from Kcclesiasticus, which 
is well known to be a book of doubtful authority. But though 
we should not reject it, which, nevertheless, if we chose, we 
might justly do, what testimony does it afford in support of 
free will? The writer says, that man, as soon as he was 
created, was left in the power of his own will; that precepts 
were given to him, which if he kept, he should also be kept 
by them ; that he had life and death, good and evil, set before 
him ; and that whatever he desired, would be given him. (r) 
Let it be granted, that man at his creation was endowed with 
a power of choosing life or death. What if we reply, that he 


(0) Tit. iii. 4, 5. (q) 1 Cor. iii. 9. 
(p) Epist. 107, ad Vital. (r) Ecclus. xv. 14. 


304 INSTITUTES OF THE ; _ [Book n_ 


has lost it? I certainly do not intend to contradict Solomon, 
who asserts that ‘‘God hath made man upright ; but they have 
sought out many inventions.” (s) But man, by his degeneracy, 
having shipwrecked both himself and all his excellences, 
whatever is attributed to his primitive state, it does not imme- 
diately follow that it belongs to his vitiated and degenerated 
nature. Therefore I reply, not only to them, but also to 
Ecclesiasticus himself, whoever he be: If you design to teach 
man to seek within himself a power to attain salvation, your 
authority is not so great in our estimation as to obtain even 
the smallest degree of credit, in opposition to the undoubted 
word of God. But if you only aim to repress the malignity of 
the flesh, which vainly attempts to vindicate itself by trans- 
ferring its crimes to God, and you therefore reply, that man — 
was originally endued with rectitude, from which it 1s evident 
that he was the cause of his own ruin, I readily assent to it ; 
provided we also agree in this, that through his own guilt he 
is now despoiled of those ornaments with which God invested 
him at the beginning; and so unite in confessing, that in his 
present situation he needs not an advocate, but a physician. 
XIX. But there is nothing which our adversaries have more 
frequently in their mouths, than the parable of Christ concern- 
ing the traveller, who was left by robbers in the road half 
dead. (¢) I know it is the common opinion of almost all wri- 
ters, that the calamity of the human race is represented under 
the type of this traveller. Hence they argue, that man is not 
_ so mutilated by the violence of sin and the devil, but that he 
still retains some relics of his former excellences, since he is 
said to have been left only half dead; for what becomes of the 
remaining portion of life, unless there remain some rectitude 
both of reason and will? In the first place, what could they 
say, if I refused to admit their allegory? For there is no 
doubt but that this interpretation, invented by the fathers, is 
foreign to the genuine sense of our Lord’s discourse. Allego- 
ries ought to be extended no further than they are supported 
by the authority of Scripture; for they are far from affording 
of themselves a sufficient foundation for any doctrines. Nor 
is there any want of arguments by which, if I chose, I could 
completely confute this erroneous notion ; for the word of God 
does not leave man in the possession of a proportion of life, 
but teaches, that as far as respects happiness of life, he is 
wholly dead. Paul, when speaking of our redemption, says, 
not that we were recovered when half dead, but that “even 
when we were dead, we were raised up.”? He calls not on the 
half dead, but on those who are in the grave, sleeping the 


(s) Eccles. vii. 29. (t) Luke x. 30. 


cHaP. VI.] ; CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 305 


sleep of death, to receive the illumination of Christ. (w) And 
the Lord himself speaks in a similar manner, when he says, 
that “the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall 
hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall 
live.” (w) With what face can they oppose a slight allusion 
against so many positive expressions? Yet let this allegory 
even be admitted as a clear testimony; what will it enable 
them to extort from us? Man, they will say, is but half dead ; 
therefore he has some faculty remaining entire.. I grant that 
he has a mind capable of understanding, though it attains not 
to heavenly and spiritual wisdom ; he has some idea of virtue ; 
he has some sense of the Deity, though he acquires not the 
true knowledge of God. But what is to be concluded from all 
this? It certainly does not disprove the assertion of Augustine, 
which has received the general approbation even of the schools, 
that man, since his fall, has been deprived of the gifts of grace 
on which salvation depends; but that the natural ones are 
corrupted and polluted. Let us hold this, then, as an undoubted 
truth, which no opposition can ever shake — that the mind of 
man is so completely alienated from the righteousness of God, 
that it conceives, desires, and undertakes every thing that is 
impious, perverse, base, impure, and flagitious ; that his heart 
is so thoroughly infected by the poison of sin, that it cannot 
produce any thing but what is corrupt ; and that if at any time 
men do any thing apparently good, yet the mind always re- 
mains involved in hypocrisy and fallacious obliquity, and the 
heart enslaved by its inward perverseness. 


CHAPTER VI. 
REDEMPTION FOR LOST MAN TO BE SOUGHT IN CHRIST. 


Tue whole human race having perished in the person of 
Adam, our original excellence and dignity, which we have 
noticed, so far from being advantageous to us, only involves us 
in greater ignominy, till God, who does not acknowledge the 
pollution and corruption of man by sin to be his work, appears 
as a Redeemer in the person of his only begotten Son. There- 
fore, since we are fallen from life into death, all that knowledge 
of God as a Creator, of which we have been treating, would 
be useless, unless it were succeeded by faith exhibiting God to 


(u) Eph. iil. 5; v. 14. (w) John v. 25. 
VOL. I. 39 


f 


3806 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK 1, 


us as a Father in Christ. This, indeed, was the genuine order 


of nature, that the fabric of the world should be a school in 
which we might learn piety, and thence be conducted to eternal 
life and perfect felicity. But since the fall, whithersoever 
we turn our eyes, the curse of God meets us on every side, 
which, whilst it seizes innocent creatures and involves them in 
our guilt, must necessarily overwhelm our souls with despair. 
For though God is pleased still to manifest his paternal kind- 
ness to us in various ways, yet we cannot, from a contempla- 
tion of the world, conclude that he is our Father, when our 
conscience disturbs us within, and convinces us that our sins 
afford a just reason why God should abandon us, and no longer 
esteem us as his children. We are also chargeable with stu- 
pidity and ingratitude ; for our minds, being blinded, do not 
perceive the truth; and all our senses being corrupted, we 
wickedly defraud God of his glory. We must therefore sub- 
scribe to the declaration of Paul: “ For after that in the wisdom 
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God 
by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” (2) 
What he denominates the wisdom of God, is this magnificent 
theatre of heaven and earth, which is replete with innumerable 
miracles, and from the contemplation of which we ought wisely 
to acquire the knowledge of God. But because we have made 
so little improvement in this way, he recalls us to the faith of 
Christ; which is despised by unbelievers on account of its appa- 
rent folly. Wherefore, though the preaching of the cross is 
not agreeable to human reason, we ought, nevertheless, to em- 
brace it with all humility, if we desire to return to God our 
Creator, from whom we have been alienated, and to have him 
reassume the character of our Father. Since the fall of the 
first man, no knowledge of God, without the Mediator, has 
been available to salvation. For Christ speaks not of his own 
time only, but comprehends all ages, when he says that “ this 
is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus 
Christ, whom thou hast sent.” (y) And this aggravates the 
stupidity of those who set open the gate of heaven to all un- 
believers and profane persons, without the grace of Christ, 
whom the Scripture universally represents as the only door of 
entrance into salvation. But if any man would restrict this 
declaration of Christ to the period of the first promulgation of 
the gospel, we are prepared with a refutation. For it has 
been a common opinion, in all ages and nations, that those who 
are alienated from God, and pronounced accursed, and children 
yf wrath, cannot please him without a reconciliation. Here 
add the answer of Christ to the woman of Samaria: “ Ye 


(z) 1 Cor. i. 21. (y) John xvii. 3. 


CHAP. VI.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 307 


worship ye know not what: we know what we worship ; for 
salvation is of the Jews.’ (z) In these words he at once con- 
demns all the religions of the Gentiles as false, and. assigns a 
reason for it; because under the law the Redeemer was 
promised only to the chosen people ; whence it follows that no 
worship has ever been acceptable to God, unless it had respect 
to Christ. Hence also Paul affirms that all the Gentiles were 
without God, and destitute of the hope of life. (a) Now,as John 
teaches us that life was from the beginning in Christ, and that 
the whole world are fallen from it, (b) it is necessary to return 
to that fountain ; and therefore Christ asserts himself to be the 
life, as he is the author of the propitiation. And, indeed, the 
celestial inheritance belongs exclusively to the children of God. 
But it is very unreasonable that they should be considered in 
the place and order of his children, who have not been engraft- 
ed into the body of his only begotten Son. And John plainly 
declares that ‘“‘ they who believe in his name become the sons 
of God.” (c) But as it is not my design in this place to treat 
professedly of faith in Christ, these cursory hints shall at 
present suffice. 

Il. Therefore God never showed himself propitious to his 
ancient people, nor afforded them any hope of his favour, with- 
out a Mediator. I forbear to speak of the legal sacrifices, by 
which the faithful were plainly and publicly instructed that 
salvation was to be sought solely in that expiation, which has 
been accomplished by Christ alone. I only assert, that the 
happiness of the Church has always been founded on the 
person of Christ. For though God comprehended in his 
covenant all the posterity of Abraham, yet Paul judiciously 
reasons, that Christ is in reality that Seed in whom all the 
nations were to be blessed ;(d) since we know that the natural 
descendants of that patriarch were not reckoned as his seed. For, 
to say nothing of Ishmael and others, what was the cause, that 
of the two sons of Isaac, the twin-brothers Esau and Jacob, 
even when they were yet unborn, one should be chosen and 
the other rejected? How came it to pass that the first-born 
was rejected, and that the younger obtained his birthright? 
How came the majority of the people to be disinherited? It 
is evident, therefore, that the seed of Abraham is reckoned 
principally in one person, and that the promised salvation was 
not manifested till the coming of Christ, whose office it is to 
collect what had been scattered abroad. The first adoption, 
therefore, of the chosen people, depended on the grace of the 
Mediator ; which, though it is not so plainly expressed by 


(z) John iv. 22. {@) Ephes. ii. 12. (b) John i. 4. 
. (c) John i. 12. (d) Gal. iii. 16. 


308 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1 


Moses, yet appears to have been generally well known to all 
the pious. For before the appointment of any king in the na- 
tion, Hannah, the mother of Samuel, speaking of the felicity 
of the faithful, thus expressed herself in her song: ‘ The Lord 
shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his 
anointed.” (e) Her meaning in these words is, that God will 
bless his Church. And to this agrees the oracle, which is soon 
after introduced: ‘I will raise me up a faithful priest, and he 
shall walk before mine anointed.” And there is no doubt that 
it was the design of the heavenly F'ather to exhibit in David 
and his posterity a lively image of Christ. With a design to 
exhort the pious, therefore, to the fear of God, he enjoins them 
to ‘kiss the Son ;” (f) which agrees with this declaration of 
the gospel: ‘‘ He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the 
Father.” (¢) Therefore, though the kingdom was weakened by 
the revolt of the ten tribes, yet the covenant, which God had 
made with David and his successors, could not but stand, as he 
also declared by the Prophets: “I will not rend away all the 
kingdom, but will give one tribe to thy son, for David my ser- 
vant’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake which I have chosen.” (/) 
This is repeated again and again. It is also expressly added, “I 
will for this afflict the seed of David, but not for ever.” (2) Ata 
little distance of time it is said, ‘‘ For David’s sake did the Lord 
his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after 
him, and to establish Jerusalem.” (4) Even when the state was 
come to the verge of ruin, it was again said; ‘“‘'The Lord would 
not destroy Judah, for David his servant’s sake, as he promised 
him to give him alway a light, and to his children.” (7) The 
sum of the whole is this — that David alone was chosen, to the 
rejection of all others, as the perpetual object of the Divine 
favour; as it is said, in another place, ‘‘He forsook the ta- 
bernacle of Shiloh; he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and 
chose not the tribe of Ephraim; but chose the tribe of Judah, 
the mount Zion, which he loved. He chose David also his 
servant, to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.” (m7) 
Finally, it pleased God to preserve his Church in such a way, 
that its security and salvation should depend on that head. 
David therefore exclaims, “‘ The Lord is their strength, and he 
is the saving strength of his anointed ;” (7) and immediately 
adds this petition: ‘Save thy people, and bless thine inherit- 
ance ;” signifying that the state of the Church is inseparably 


connected with the government of Christ. In the same sense — 


he elsewhere says, “‘ Save, Lord; let the king hear us when 


(e) 1 Sam. ii.-10. (f) Psalm ii. 12. (g) John v. 24. 
' (h) 1 Kings xi. 13. (t) 1 Kings xi. 39. 
‘k) 1 Kings xv. 4. (l) 2 Kings viii. 19. (m) Psalm Ixxviii. 60, 67, 68, 70, 71. 
(n) Psalm xxviii. 8. 


CHAP. VI. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 309 


we call.” (0) In these words he clearly teaches us that the 
faithful resort to God for assistance, with no other confidence 
than because they are sheltered under the protection of the 
king. ‘This is to be inferred from another psalm: ‘ Save, O 
Lord! Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord;” (p) 
where it is sufficiently evident that the faithful are invited to 
Christ, that they may hope to be saved by the power of God. 
The same thing is alluded to in another prayer, where the 
whole Church implores the mercy of God: ‘Let thy hand be 
upon the man of thy right hand, upon the Son of man whom . 
thou madest strong for thyself.” (q) For though the author 
of the psalm deplores the dissipation of all the people, yet he 
ardently prays for their restoration in their head alone. But 
when Jeremiah, after the people were driven into exile, the 
land laid waste, and all things apparently ruined, bewails the 
miseries of the Church, he principally laments that by the 
subversion of the kingdom, the hope of the faithful was cut 
off. ‘The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, 
was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow 
we shall live among the heathen.” (7) Hence it is sufficiently. 
evident, that since God cannot be propitious to mankind but 
through the Mediator, Christ was always exhibited to the holy 
fathers under the law, as the object to which they should di- 
rect their faith. 

IIL. Now, when consolation is promised in affliction, but 
especially when the deliverance of the Church is described, the 
standard of confidence and hope is erected in Christ alone. 
“Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for 
salvation with thine anointed,” (s) says Habakkuk. And 
whenever the Prophets mention the restoration of the Church, 
they recall the people to the promise given to David concern- 
ing the perpetuity of his kingdom. Nor is this to be wondered 
at; for otherwise there would be no stability in the covenant. 
‘To this refers the memorable answer of Isaiah. For when he 
saw that his declaration concerning the raising of the siege, 
and the present deliverance of Jerusalem, was rejected by that 
unbelieving king, Ahaz, he makes rather an abrupt transition 
to the Messiah: ‘ Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a 
son ;’’(t¢) indirectly suggesting, that although the king and 
the people, in their perverseness, rejected the promise which 
had been given them, as though they would purposely labour 
to invalidate the truth of God, yet that his covenant would 
not be frustrated, but that the Redeemer should come at his 
appointed time. Finally, all the Prophets, in order to display 


(0) Psalm xx. 9. (q) Psalm Ixxx. 17. (s) Hab. iii. 13. 
(p) Psalm exviii. 25, %. (r) Lam. 1v. 20. (t) Isaiah vii. 14. 


310 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 1.: 


the Divine mercy,.were constantly careful to exhibit to view 
that kingdom of David, from which redemption and eternal 
salvation were to proceed. Thus Isaiah: “I will make an 
everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. 
Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people; ” (v) 
because in desperate circumstances the faithful could have no 
hope, any otherwise than by ‘his interposition as a witness, 
that God would be merciful to them. Thus also Jeremiah, to 
comfort them who were in despair, says, ‘‘ Behold, the days 
. come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous 
Branch. In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall 
dwell safely.” (w) And Ezekiel: “I will set up one Shep- 
herd over them, and he shall feed them, even my servant 
David. And I the Lord will be their Gad, and my servant 
David a prince among them; and I will make with them a 
covenant of peace.”(z) Again, in another place, having 
treated of their incredible renovation, he says, ‘ David my 
servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one 
Shepherd. Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with 
_ them ; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them.” (y) I 
select a few passages out of many, because I only wish to 
apprize the reader, that the hope of the pious has never been 
placed any where but in Christ. All the other Prophets also 
uniformly speak the same language. As Hosea: ‘Then shall 
the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered 
together, and appoint themselves one head.’ (z) And in a 
subsequent chapter he is still more explicit: ‘ The children 
of Israel shall return, and seek the Lord their God, and David 
their king.” (a) Micah also, discoursing on the return of the 
people, expressly declares, ‘‘ their king shall pass before them, 
and the Lord on the head of them.” (6) Thus Amos, intend- 
ing to predict the restoration of the people, says, ‘In that day 
I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close 
up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins.’ (¢) 
This implies that the only standard of salvation was the res- 
toration of the regal dignity in the family of David, which was 
accomplished in Christ. Zechariah, therefore, living nearer to 
the time of the manifestation of Christ, more openly exclaims, 
‘“‘ Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion : shout, O daughter of 
Jerusalem : behold, thy “King cometh unto thee: he is just, 
and having salvation. "(d) This corresponds with a passage 
from a psalm, already cited: ‘ The Lord is the saving strength 
of his anointed. Save thy people;’’(e) where salvation is 

extended from the head to the whole body. . 


(v) Isaiah lv. 3. (w) Jer. xxiii. 5, 6. (x) Ezek. xxxiv. 23—25. 
(y) Ezek. xxxvii. 24, 26. (z) Hos. i. il. 
(a) Hos. iii. 5. (6) "Mic. ii. 13. (c) Amos ix. 11. 


(d@) Zech. ix. 9. (e) Psalm xxviii. 8, 9. 


CHAP. V1.} CHRISTIAN RELIGION. $11 


IV. It was the will of God that the Jews should be in- 
structed by these prophecies, so that they might direct their 
eyes to Christ whenever they wanted deliverance. Nor, in- 
deed, notwithstanding their shameful degeneracy, could the 
memory of this general principle ever be obliterated — that 
God would be the deliverer of the Church by the hand of 
Christ, according to his promise to David; and that in this 
manner the covenant of grace, in which God had adopted 
his elect, would at length be confirmed. Hence it came to 
pass, that when Christ, a little before his death, entered into 
Jerusalem, that song was heard from the mouths of children, 
“‘ Hosanna to the Son of David.” (f) For the subject of their 
song appears to have been derived from a sentiment generally 
received and avowed by the people, that there remained to 
them no other pledge of the mercy of God, but in the advent 
of the Redeemer. For this reason Christ commands his dis- 
ciples to believe in him, that they may distinctly and perfectly 
believe in God: ‘‘ Ye believe in God, believe also in me.” (g) 
For though, strictly speaking, faith ascends from Christ to the 
Father, yet he suggests, that though it were even fixed on 
God, yet it would gradually decline, unless he interposed, to 
preserve its stability. The majesty of God is otherwise far 
above the reach of mortals, who are like worms crawling upon 
the earth. Wherefore, though I do not reject that common 
observation that God is the object of faith, yet I consider it as 
requiring some correction. For it is not without reason that 
Christ is called ‘‘ the image of the invisible God ;”’ (h) but by 
this appellation we are reminded, that unless God reveal him- 
self to us in Christ, we cannot have that knowledge of him 
which is necessary to salvation. For although among the 
Jews the scribes had by false glosses obscured the declarations 
of the Prophets concerning the Redeemer, yet Christ assumed 
it for granted, as if allowed by common consent, that there 
‘vas no other remedy for the confusion into which the Jews 
had fallen, nor any other mode of deliverance for the Church, 
but the exhibition of the Mediator. There was not, indeed, 
such a general knowledge as there ought to have been, of the 
principle taught by Paul, that “Christ is the end of the 
law ;”’ (2) but the truth and certainty of this evidently appears 
both from the law itself and from the Prophets. I am not yet 
treating of faith; there will be a more suitable place for that 
subject in another part of the work. Only let this be well 
fixed in the mind of the reader; that the first step to piety is 
to know that God is our Father, to protect, govern, and sup- 
port us till he gathers us into the eternal inheritance of his 


(f) Matt. xxi. 9. (g) John xiv. 1. (h) Col. i. 15. (t) Rom. x. 4 


312 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book m. 


kingdom ; that hence it is plain, as we have before asserted 
that there can be no saving knowledge of God without Christ; 
and consequently that from the beginning of the world he has 
always been manifested to all the elect, that they might look 
to him, and repose all their confidence in him. In this sense 
Irenzeus says that the Father, who is infinite in himself, be- 
comes finite in the Son; because he has accommodated him- 
self to our capacity, that he may not overwhelm our minds 
with the infinity of his glory.(4) And fanatics, not consider- 
ing this, pervert a useful observation into an impious reverie, 
as though there were in Christ merely a portion of Deity, an 
emanation from the infinite perfection ; whereas the sole mean- 
ing of that writer is, that God is apprehended in Christ, and in 
him alone. ‘The assertion of John has been verified in all 
ages, ‘‘ Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the 
Father.” (2) For though many in ancient times gloried in 
being worshippers of the Supreme Deity, the Creator of heaven 
and earth, yet, because they had no Mediator, it was impossi- 
ble for them to have any real acquaintance with the mercy 
of God, or persuasion that he was their Father. Therefore, as 
they did not hold the head, that is, Christ, all their knowledge 
of God was obscure and unsettled; whence it came to pass, 
that degenerating at length into gross and vile superstitions, 
they betrayed their ignorance, lke the Turks in modern 
times; who, though they boast of having the Creator of 
heaven and earth for their God, yet only substitute an idol 
instead of the true God as long as they remain’ enemies to 
Christ. 


CHAPTER VII. 


THE LAW GIVEN, NOT TO CONFINE THE ANCIENT PEOPLE TO IT- 
SELF, BUT TO ENCOURAGE THEIR HOPE OF SALVATION IN 
CHRIST, TILL THE TIME OF HIS COMING. 


From the deduction we have made, it may easily be in- 
ferred, that the law was superadded about four hundred years 
after the death of Abraham, not to draw away the attention of 
the chosen people from Christ, but rather to keep their minds 
waiting for his advent, to inflame their desires and confirm 
their expectations, that they might not be discouraged by so 


(k) Lib. 4, c. 8. _ (2) 1 John ii. 23. 


CHAP. vil.] — CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 3138 


long a delay. By the word law, I intend, not only the de- 
calogue, which prescribes the rule of a pious and righteous life, 
but the form of religion delivered from God by the hands of 
Moses. “For Moses was not made a legislator to abolish the 
blessing promised to the seed of Abraham; on the contrary, 
we see him on every occasion reminding the Jews of that 
gracious covenant made with their fathers, to which they 
were heirs; as though the object of his mission had been to 
renew it. It was very clearly manifested in the ceremonies. 
For what could be more vain or frivolous than for men to offer 
the fetid stench arising from the fat of cattle, in order to 
reconcile themselves to God? or to resort to any aspersion of 
water or of blood, to cleanse themselves from pollution? In 
short, the whole legal worship, if it be considered in itself, and 
contain no shadows and figures of correspondent truths, will 
appear perfectly ridiculous. Wherefore it is not without 
reason, that both in the speech of Stephen and in the Epistle 
to the Hebrews, that passage is so carefully stated, in which 
God commands Moses to make all things pertaining to the 
tabernacle ‘“‘ according to the pattern showed to him in the 
mount.’ (m) For unless there had been some spiritual design, 
to which they were directed, the Jews would have laboured to 
no purpose in these observances, as the Gentiles did in their 
mummeries. Profane men, who have never seriously devoted 
themselves to the pursuit of piety, have not patience to hear of 
such various rites: they not only wonder why God should 
weary his ancient people with such a mass of ceremonies, but 
they even despise and deride them as puerile and ludicrous. 
This arises from inattention to the end of the legal figures, 
from which if those figures be separated, they must be con- 
demned as vain and useless. But the “pattern,” which is 
mentioned, shows that God commanded the sacrifices, not 
with a design to occupy his worshippers in terrestrial exercises, 
but rather that he might elevate their minds to sublimer ob- 
jects. This may be likewise evinced by his nature ; for as he 
is a Spirit, he is pleased with none but spiritual worship. 
‘Testimonies of this truth may be found in the numerous 
passages of the Prophets, in which they reprove the stupidity 
of the Jews for supposing that sacrifices possess any real value 
in the sight of God. Do they mean to derogate from the law ? 
Not at all; but being true interpreters of it, they designed by 
this method to direct the eyes of the people to that point from 
which the multitude were wandering. Now, from the grace 
offered to the Jews, it is inferred as a certain truth, that the 
law was not irrespective of Christ; for Moses mentioned to 


(m) Acts vii. 44. Heb. viii. 5. Ex. xxv. 40. 
VOL. I. 40 


O14 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK 1. 


them this end of their adoption, that they might “be unto 
God a kingdom of priests ;” (7) which could not be attained 
without a greater and more excellent reconciliation than could 
arise from the blood of beasts. For what is more improbable 
than that the sons of Adam, who by hereditary contagion are 
all born the slaves of sin, should be exalted to regal dignity 

and thus become partakers of the glory of God, unless such 
an eminent blessing proceeded from some other source than 
themselves? How also could the right of the priesthood re- 
main among them, the pollution of whose crimes rendered 
them abominable to God, unless they had been consecrated in 
a holy head? Wherefore Peter makes a beautiful application 
of this observation of Moses, suggesting that the plenitude of 

that grace, of which the Jews enjoyed a taste under the law, is 
exhibited in Christ. “Ye are,’’ says he, “‘a chosen generation, 
a royal priesthood.” (0) This application of the words tends 
to show, that they, to whom Christ has appeared under the 
gospel, have obtained more than their forefathers; because 
they are all invested with sacerdotal and regal honours, that in 
a dependence on their Mediator they may venture to come 
boldly into the presence of God. 

Il. And here it must be remarked, by the way, that the 
kingdom, which at length was erected in the family of David, 
is a part of the law, and comprised under the ministry of 
Moses; whence it follows, that both in the posterity of David, 
and in the whole Levitical tribe, as in a twofold mirror, Christ 
was exhibited to the view of his ancient people. For, as I 
have just observed, it was otherwise impossible that in the 
Divine view they should be kings and priests, who were the 
slaves of sin and death, and polluted by their own corruptions. 
Hence appears the truth of the assertion of Paul, that the 
Jews were subject, as it were, to the authority of a school- 
master, till the advent of that seed, for whose sake the promise 
was given. (p) For Christ being not yet familiarly discovered, 
they were like children, whose imbecility could not yet bear 
the full knowledge of heavenly things. But how they were 
led to Christ by the ceremonies, has been already stated, and 
may be better learned from the testimonies of the Prophets. 
For although they were obliged every day to approach God 
with new sacrifices, in order to appease him, yet Isaiah pro- 
mises them the expiation of all their transgressions by a single 
sacrifice, (q) which is confirmed by Daniel. (7) ‘The priests 
chosen from the tribe of Levi, used to enter into the sanctuary ; 
but concerning that one priest it was once said, that he was 


(n) Exod. xix 6. (0) 1 Peter ii. 9. (p) Gal. iii. 24.. 
(q) Isaiah liii. 5, &e. (r) Dan. ix. 26, &c. 


sonal 


cHaP. vil]. CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 315 


divinely chosen with an oath, to be “a priest for ever after 
the order of Melchisedec.” (s) There was, then, an unction 
of visible oil; but Daniel, from his vision, foretells an unction 
of a different kind. But not to insist on many proofs, the 
author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, from the fourth chapter 
to the eleventh, demonstrates in a manner sufficiently copious 
and clear, that, irrespective of Christ, all the ceremonies of the 
law are worthless and vain. And in regard to the decalogue, 
we should attend to the declaration of Paul, that ‘“‘ Christ is 
the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believ- 
eth ;”’ (¢) and also that Christ is ‘‘ the Spirit,”” who gives “life” 
to the otherwise dead letter. (v) For in the former passage he 
signifies that righteousness is taught in vain by the precepts, 
till Christ bestows it both by a gratuitous imputation, and by 
the Spirit of regeneration. Wherefore he justly denominates 
Christ the completion or end of the law; for we should derive 
no benefit from a knowledge of what God requires. of us, un- 
less we were succoured by Christ when labouring and op- 
pressed under its yoke and intolerable burden. In another 
place, he states that ‘the law was added because of transgres- 
sions ;”’ (w) that is, to humble men, by convicting them of being 
the causes of their own condemnation. Now, this being the 
true and only preparation for seeking Christ, the various de- 
clarations which he makes are in perfect unison with each 
other. But as he was then engaged in a controversy with 
erroneous teachers, who pretended that we merit righteousness 
by the works of the law, —in order to refute their error, he was 
sometimes obliged to use the term Jaw in a more restricted 
sense, as merely preceptive, although it was otherwise con- 
nected with the covenant of gratuitous adoption. 

lil. But it is worthy of a little inquiry, how we are ren- 
dered more inexcusable by the instructions of the moral law, 
in order that a sense of our guilt may excite us to supplicate 
for pardon. If it be true that the law displays a perfection 
of righteousness, it also follows that the complete observation 
of it, is in the sight of God a perfect righteousness, in which a 
man would be esteemed and reputed righteous at the tribunal 
of heaven. Wherefore Moses, when he had promulgated the 
law, hesitated not.to ‘call heaven and earth to record” (2) 
that he had proposed to the Israelites life and death, good and 
evil. Nor can we deny that the reward of eternal life awaits 
a righteous obedience to the law, according to the Divine pro- 
mise. But, on the other hand, it is proper to examine whether 
we perform that obedience, the merit of which can warrant 


(s) Psalm ox. 4. (t) Rom. x. 4. (v) 2 Cor. iti 17. 
~  (w) Gal. iii. 19. (x) Deut. xxx. 15, 19, 


316 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 11. 


our confident expectation of that reward. For how unim- 
portant is it, to discover that the reward of eternal life depends 
on the observance of the law, unless we also ascertain whether 
it be possible for us to arrive at eternal life in that way! But 
in this point the weakness of the law is manifest. For as 
none of us are found to observe the law, we are excluded from 
the promises of life, and fall entirely under the curse. [am 
now showing, not only what does happen, but what necessa- 
rily must happen. For the doctrine of the law being far 
above human ability, man may view the promises, indeed, from 
a distance, but cannot gather any fruit from them. It only 
remains for him, from their goodness to form a truer estimate 
of his own misery, while he reflects that all hope of salvation 
is cut off, and ‘that he is in imminent danger of death. On 
the other hand, we are urged with terrible sanctions, which 
bind, not a few of us, but every individual of mankind; they 
urge, I say, and pursue us with inexorable rigour, so that in 
the law we see nothing but present death. 

IV. Therefore, if we direct our views exclusively to the 
law, the effects upon our minds will only be despondency, 
confusion, and despair, since it condemns and curses us all, 
and keeps us far from that blessedness which it proposes to 
them who observe it. Does the Lord, then, you will say, in 
this case do nothing but mock us? For how little does it 
differ from mockery, to exhibit a hope of felicity, to imvite 
and exhort to it, to declare that it is ready for our reception, 
whilst the way to it is closed and inaccessible! I reply, al- 
though the promises of the law, being conditional, depend on 
a perfect obedience to the law, which can nowhere be found, 
yet they have not been given in vain. For when we have 
learned that they will be vain and inefficacious to us, unless 
God embrace us with his gratuitous goodness, without any re- 
gard to our works, and unless we have also embraced by faith 
that goodness, as exhibited to us in the gospel, —then these 
promises are not without their use, even with the condition ~ 
annexed to them. For then he gratuitously confers every 
thing upon us, so that he adds this also to the number of his 
favours, that not rejecting our imperfect obedience, but par- 
doning its deficiencies, he gives us to enjoy the benefit of the 
legal promises, just as if we had fulfilled the condition our- 
selves. But as we shall more fully discuss this question when - 
we treat of the justification of faith, we shall pursue ‘it no 
further at present. 

V. Our assertion, respecting the impossibility of observing 
the law, must be briefly explained and proved ; for it is gene- 
rally esteemed a very absurd sentiment, so that Jerome has not 
scrupled to denounce it as accursed. What was the opinion of 


cmap: vit. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 317 


Jerome, I regard not ; let us inquire what is truth. I shall not — 
here enter into a long discussion of the various species of pos- 
sibility ; I call that impossible which has never happened yet, 
and which is prevented by the ordination and decree of God 
from ever happening in future. If we inquire from the remo- 
test period of antiquity, I assert that there never has existed a 
saint, who, surrounded with a body of death, could attain to 
such a degree of love, as to love God with all his heart, with 
all his soul, and with all his mind; and, moreover, that there 
never has been one, who was not the subject of some inordi- 
nate desire. Who candeny this? I know, indeed, what sort 
of saints the folly of superstition imagines to itself, such as 
almost excel even the angels of heaven in purity; but such an 
imagination is repugnant both to Scripture and to the dictates 
of experience. I assert also that no man, who shall exist in 
future, will reach the standard of true perfection, unless re- 
leased from the burden of the body. This is established by 
clear testimonies of Scripture: Solomon says, ‘‘ There is not 
a just man upon earth, that doeth good and sinneth not.” (y) 
David; “In thy sight shall no man living be justified.” (z) 
Job in many passages affirms the same thing; (a) but Paul 
- most plainly of all, that ‘the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, 
and the Spirit against the flesh.” (b) Nor does he prove, that 
*‘as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse,” 
by any other reason but because ‘it 1s written, Cursed is every 
one that continueth not in all things which are written in the 
book of the law to do them;”(c) evidently suggesting, and 
even taking it for granted, that no one can continue in them. 
Now, whatever is predicted in the Scriptures, must be consi- 
dered as perpetual, and even as necessary. With a similar fal- 
lacy Augustine used to be teased by the Pelagians, who main- 
tained that it is an injury to God, to say that he eommands 
more than the faithful through his grace are able to perform. 
To avoid their cavil, he admitted that the Lord might, if he 
chose, exalt a mortal man to the purity of angels; but that he 
neither had ever done it, nor would ever do it, because he had 
declared otherwise in the Scriptures. (d) This I do not deny; 
but I add that it is absurd to dispute concerning the power of 
God, in opposition to his veracity; and that, therefore, it af- 
fords no room for cavilling, when any one maintains that to 

_be impossible, which the Scriptures declare will never happen. | 
But if the dispute be about the term, the Lord, in reply to an 
inquiry of his disciples, ‘‘ Who, then, can be saved?”’ says, 
“With men this is impossible; but with God all things are 


(y) Eccles. vii. 20.  — (z) Psalm exliii. 2. (a) Jobiv.17; ix.2; xv.14; xxv 4. 
(6) Gal.v.17. (¢) Gal. iii 10. (d) Lib. de Nat. et Grat. 


318 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1 


possible.” (e) Augustine contends, with a very powerful ar: 
gument, that in this flesh we never render to God the legiti- 
mate love which we owe to him. “ Love,” says he, “is an 
effect of knowledge, so that no man can perfectly love God, 
who has not first a complete knowledge of his goodness. 
During our pilgrimage in this world, we see through an ob- 
scure medium; the consequence of this, then, is, that our love 
is imperfect.” It ought, therefore, to be admitted without 
controversy, that it is impossible in this carnal state to fulfil 
the law, if we consider the impotence of our nature, as will 
elsewhere be proved also from Paul. (f) 

~VI. But for the better elucidation of the subject, let us state, © 
in a compendious order, the office and use of what is called the 
‘moral law. It is contained, as far as I understand it, in these 
three points. ‘The first is, that while it discovers the right- 
eousness of God, that is, the only righteousness which is ac- 
ceptable to God, it warns every one of his own unrighteousness, 
places it beyond all doubt, convicts, and condemns him. For 
it is necessary that man, blinded and inebriated with self-love, 
should thus be driven into a knowledge of himself, and a con- 
fession of his own imbecility and impurity. Since, unless his 
vanity be evidently reproved, he is inflated with a foolish con- 
fidence in his strength, and can never be brought to perceive 
its feebleness as long as he measures it by the rule of his own 
fancy. But as soon as he begins to compare it to the difficulty 
of the law, he finds his insolence and pride immediately abate. 
For how great soever his preconceived opinion of it, he per- 
ceives it immediately pant under so heavy a load, and then 
totter, and at length fall. Thus, being instructed under the 
tuition of the law, he lays aside that arrogance with which he 
was previously blinded. He must also be cured of the other 
disease, of pride, with which, we have observed, he is afflicted. 
As long as he is permitted to stand in his own judgment, he — 
substitutes hypocrisy instead of righteousness ; contented with 
which, he rises up with I know not what pretended righteous- 
nesses, in opposition to the grace of God. But when he is con- 
strained to examine his life according to the rules of the law, 
he no longer presumes on his counterfeit righteousness, but 
perceives that he is at an infinite distance from holiness ; and also 
that he abounds with innumerable vices, from which he before 
supposed himself to be pure. For the evils of concupiscence 
are concealed in such deep and intricate recesses, as easily to 
elude the view of man. And it is not without cause that the 
Apostle says, ‘‘ I had not known lust, except the law had said, 
Thou shalt not covet ;” (g) because, unless it be stripped of its 


(ce) Matt. xix. 25, 26. (f) Rom. viii. 3, &c. (g) Rom. vii. 7. 


CHAP. VII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 319 


disguises, and brought to light by the law, it destroys the 
miserable man in so secret a manner, that he does not perceive 
its fatal dart. 

Vil. Thus the law is hike a mirror, in which we behold, first, 
our impotence ; secondly, our iniquity, which proceeds from it ; 
and lastly, the consequence of both, our obnoxiousness to the 
curse ; just as a mirror represents to us the spots on our face. 
For when a man is destitute of power to practise righteousness, 
he must necessarily fall into the habits of sin. And sin is im- 
mediately followed by the curse. Therefore the greater the 
transgression of which the law convicts us, the more severe is 
the judgment with which it condemns us. ‘This appears from 
the observation of the Apostle, that “ by the law is the know- 
ledge of sin.”’(h) For he there speaks only of the first office 
of the law, which is experienced in sinners not yet regenerated. 
The same sentiment is conveyed in the following passages: 
that ‘‘the law entered, that the offence might abound ;” (2) and 
that it is therefore ‘“‘the ministration of death, which worketh 
wrath and slayeth.” (k) For iniquity undoubtedly increases 
more and more, in proportion to the clearness of that sense of 
sin which strikes the conscience; because to transgression of 
the law, there is then added contumacy against the lawgiver. 
It remains, therefore, that the law arm the Divine wrath against 
the sinner; for of itself it can only accuse, condemn, and 
destroy. And, as Augustine says, if we have not the Spirit of 
grace, the law serves only to convict and slay us. But this 
assertion neither reflects dishonour on the law, nor at all dero- 
gates from its excellence. Certainly, if our will were wholly 
conformed to the law, and disposed to obey it, the mere know- 
ledge of it would evidently be sufficient to salvation. But 
since our carnal and corrupt nature is in a state of hostility 
against the spirituality of the Divine law, and not amended by 
its discipline, it follows that the law, which was given for 
salvation, if it could have found adequate attention, becomes 
an occasion of sin and death. For since we are all convicted 
of having transgressed it, the more clearly it displays the 
righteousness of God, so, on the contrary, the more it detects 
our iniquity, and the more certainly it confirms the reward of 
life and salvation reserved for the righteous, so much the more 
certain it makes the perdition of the wicked. ‘These expres- 
sions, therefore, are so far from being dishonourable to the law, 
that they serve more illustriously to recommend the Divine 
goodness. For hence it really appears, that our iniquity and 
depravity prevent us from enjoying that blessed life which is 
revealed to all menin the law. Hence the grace of God, which 


(h) Rom. iii. 20. (7) Rom. v. 20. (k) 2 Cor. ili. 7, Rom. iv. 15. 


320 INSTITUTES OF THE | [Boox IL 


succours us without the assistance of the law, is rendered 
sweeter ; and his mercy, which confers it on us, more amiable; 
from which we learn that he is never wearied with repeating 
his blessings and loading us with new favours. 

VIII. But though the iniquity and condemnation of us all 
are confirmed by the testimony of the law, this is not done (at 
least if we properly profit by it) in order to make us sink into 
despair, and fall over the precipice of despondency. It is true 
that the wicked are thus confounded by it, but this is occa- 
sioned by the obstinacy of their hearts. With the children of 
God, its instructions must terminate in a different manner. 
The Apostle indeed declares that we are all condemned by the 
sentence of the law, ‘that every mouth may be stopped, and 
all the world may become guilty before God.” (/) Yet the 
same Apostle elsewhere informs us, that ‘God hath concluded 
them all in unbelief,” not that he might destroy or suffer all to 
perish, but ‘‘that he might have mercy upon all ; ” (mm) that is, 
that leaving their foolish opinion of their own strength, they 
may know that they stand -and are supported only by the 
power of God; that being naked and destitute, they may resort 
for assistance to his mercy, recline themselves wholly upon it, 
hide themselves entirely in it, and embrace it alone for right- 
eousness and merits, since it is offered in Christ to all who with 
true faith implore it and expect it. For in the precepts of the 
law, God appears only, on the one hand, as the rewarder of per- 
fect righteousness, of which we are all destitute; and on the 
other, as the severe judge of transgressions. © But in Christ, his 
face shines with a plenitude of grace and lenity, even towards 
miserable and unworthy sinners. 

IX. Of making use of the law to implore the assistance of 
God, Augustine frequently treats ; as when he writes to Hilary: 
“'The law gives commands, in order that, endeavouring to 
perform them, and being wearied through our infirmity under 
the law, we may learn to pray for the assistance of grace.” 
Also to Asellius: “The utility of the law is to convince man 
of his own infirmity, and to compel him to pray for the gra- 
cious remedy provided in Christ.’”’ Also to Innocentius Ro- 
manus: “lhe law commands: grace furnishes strength for the 
performance.” Again, to Valentine: ‘‘God commands what © 
‘we cannot perform, that we may know for what blessings we 
ought to supplicate him.” Again: ‘The law was given to 
convict you ; that being convicted you might fear, that fearing 
you might pray for pardon, and not presume on your own 
strength.” Again: ‘The end for which the law was given, 
was to diminish that which was great, to demonstrate that you 


{ 


(t) Rom. iii. 19. ) (m) Rom. xi. 32. 


cHaP. vil.] ’ CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 321 


have of yourself no ability to work righteousness, that thus, 
being poor, indigent, and destitute, you might have recourse 
to grace for relief.” Afterwards he addresses himself to God: 
“Thus do, O Lord! thus do, O merciful Lord! command that 
which cannot be performed : even command that which cannot 
be performed without thy grace: that when men cannot per- 
form it in their own strength, every mouth may be stopped, 
and no man appear great in his own estimation. Let all men 
be mean, and let all the world be proved guilty before God.” 
But I am not wise in collecting so many testimonies, when this 
holy man has written a treatise expressly on this subject, which 
he has entitled De Spiritu et Litera, On the Spirit and Letter. 
The second use of the law he does not so clearly describe, 
either because he knew that it depends on the first, or because 
he did not so fully understand it, or because he wanted words 
to explain it with distinctness and perspicuity adequate to his 
ideas of it. Yet this first office of the law is not confined to 
the pious, but extends also to the reprobate. For though they 
do not, with the children of God, advance so far as, after the 
mortification of the flesh, to be renewed, and to flourish again 
in the inner man, but, confounded with the first horrors of con- 
seience, remain in despair, yet they contribute to manifest the 
equity of the Divine judgment, by their consciences being 
agitated with such violent emotions. For they are always 
desirous of cavilling against the judgment of God; but now, 
while it is not yet manifested, they are, nevertheless, so con- 
founded with the testimony of the law and of their own con- 
science, that they betray in themselves what they have deserved. 

X. The second office of the law is, to cause those who, 
unless constrained, feel no concern for justice and. rectitude, 
when they hear its terrible sanctions, to be at least restrained 
by a fear of its penalties. And they are restrained, not because 
it internally influences or affects their minds, but because, be- 
ing chained, as it were, they refrain from external acts, and 
repress their depravity within them, which otherwise they 
would have wantonly discharged. ‘This makes them neither 
better nor more righteous in the Divine view. For although, 
being prevented either by fear or by shame, they dare not exe- 
cute what their minds have contrived, nor openly discover the 
fury of their passions, yet their hearts are not disposed to fear 
and obey God; and the more they restrain themselves, the 
more violently they are inflamed within; they ferment, they 
boil, ready to break out into any external acts, if they were 
not prevented by this dread of the law. And not only so, they 
also inveterately hate the law itself, and execrate God the law- 
giver, so that, if they could, they would wish to annihilate him 
whom they cannot bear, either in commanding that which is 

VOL. I. 


‘\ 


"i 


322, INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 11. 


right, or in punishing the despisers of his majesty. In some, 
indeed, this state of mind is more evident, in others more con- 
cealed ; but it is really the case of all who are yet unregenerate, 
that they are induced to attend to the law, not by a voluntary 
submission, but with reluctance and resistance, only by the 
violence of fear. But yet this constrained and extorted rght- 
eousnhess is necessary to the community, whose public tran- 
quillity is provided for by God in this instance, while he pre- 
vents all things being involved in confusion, which would 
certainly be the case, if all men were permitted to pursue 
their own inclinations. Moreover, it is useful even to the 
children of God, to be exercised by its discipline before their 
vocation, while they are destitute of the Spirit of sanctification, 
and are absorbed in carnal folly. For when the dread of Di- 
vine vengeance restrains them even from external licentious- 
ness, although, their minds being not yet subdued, they make 
but a slow progress at present, yet they are in some measure 
accustomed to bear the yoke of righteousness ; so that when 
they are called, they may not be entirely unaccustomed to its 
discipline, as a thing altogether unknown. ‘To this office of 
the law the Apostle appears particularly to have referred, when 
he says, ‘‘ that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for 
the lawless and disobedient ; for the ungodly and for sinners; 
for unholy and profane ; for murderers of fathers and murderers 
of mothers; for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that 
defile themselves with mankind, for men-stealers, for lars, for 
perjured persons, and if there be any othr thing that is con- 
trary to sound doctrine.” (x) For he here signifies that it 
restrains the violence of the carnal desires, which would other- 
wise indulge themselves in the most unbounded licentiousness. 

XI. But we may apply to both what he elsewhere asserts, 
that to the Jews “the law was a schoolmaster to bring them to 
Christ ;”’ (0) for there are two kinds of persons who are led to 
Christ by its discipline. Some, whom we mentioned in the 
first place, from too much confidence either in their own 
- strength or in their own righteousness, are unfit to receive the 
grace of Christ, till they have first been stripped of every thing. 
The law, therefore, reduces them to humility by a knowledge 
of their own misery, that thus they may be prepared to pray 
for that of which they before supposed themselves not -desti- 
tute. Others need a bridle to restrain them, lest they abandon 
themselves to carnal licentiousness, to such a degree as wholly 
to depart from all practice of righteousness. For where the 
Spirit does not yet reign, there is sometimes such a violent 
ebullition of the passions, as to occasion great danger of the soul 
that is under their influence being swallowed up in forget- 


(n) 1 Tim. i. 9, 10. (0) Gal. iii. 24. 


CHAP. vil. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 393 


fulness and contempt of God; which would certainly be the 
ease, if the Lord did not provide this remedy against it. 
Those, therefore, whom he has destined to the inheritance 
of his kingdom, if he do not immediately regenerate them, 
he keeps under fear by the works of the law till the time 
of his visitation ; not that chaste and pure fear which ought to 
be felt by his children, but a fear which is, nevertheless, useful 
to train them, according to their capacity, to true piety. Of 
this we have so many proofs, that there is no need to adduce 
any example. For all who have lived for a considerable time 
in ignorance of God will confess it to have been their experi- 
ence, that they were constrained by the law to a certain kind 
of fear and reverence of God, till, being regenerated by his 
Spirit, they began to love him from their hearts. 

XII. The third use of the law, which is the principal one, 
and which is more nearly connected with the proper end of it, 
relates to the faithful, in whose hearts the Spirit of God already 
lives and reigns. For although the law is inscribed and en- 
graven on their hearts by the finger of God, — that is, although 
they are so excited and animated by the direction of the Spirit, 
that they desire to obey God, —yet they derive a twofold ad- 
vantage from the law. For they find it an excellent instrument 
to give them, from day to day, a better and more certain under- 
standing of the Divine will to which they aspire, and to con- 
firm them in the knowledge of it. As, though a servant be 
already influenced by the strongest desire of gaining the appro- 
bation of his master, yet it is necessary for him carefully to 
inquire and observe the orders of his master, in order to con- 
form to them. Nor let any one of us exempt himself from 
this necessity ; for no man has already acquired so much wis- 
‘dom, that he could not by the daily instruction of the law 
make new advances into a purer knowledge of the Divine will. 
In the next place, as we need not only instruction, but also 
exhortation, the servant of God will derive this further advan- 
tage from the law; by frequent meditation on it he will be 
excited to obedience, he will be confirmed in it, and restrained 
from the slippery path of transgression. For in this manner 
should the saints stimulate themselves, because, with whatever 
alacrity they labour for the righteousness of God according to 
the Spirit, yet they are always burdehed with the indolence of 
the flesh, which prevents their proceeding with due prompti- 
tude. ‘To this flesh the law serves as a whip, urging it, like a 
dull and tardy animal, forwards to its work ; and even to the 
spiritual man, who is not yet delivered from the burden of the 
flesh, it will be a perpetual spur, that will not permit him to 
loiter. To this use of the law David referred, when he cele- 
brated it in such remarkable encomiums as these: ‘‘ The law 


324 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 1, 


of the Lord is perfect, converting the sovl: tne statutes of the 
Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the 
Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes,” &c.(p) Again: “Thy 
word is a lamp unto my feet, and a hght unto my path; ” (q) 
and many others, which he introduces,in every part of this 
»salm. Nor are these assertions repugnant to those of Paul, in 
which he shows, not what service the law renders to the re- 
generate, but what it can bestow upon man merely of itself; 
whereas the Psalmist in these passages celebrates the great 
advantage derived, through the Divine teaching, from the read- 
ing of the law, by those whom God inspires with an inward 
promptitude to obedience. And he adverts not only to the 
precepts, but to the promise of grace annexed to their perform- 
ance, which alone causes that which is bitter to become sweet. 
For what would be less amiable than the law, if by demands 
and threats it only distressed the mind with fear, and harassed 
it with terror? But David particularly shows, that in the law 
he discovered the Mediator, without whom there is nothing 
pleasant or delightful. 

XII. Some unskilful men, being unable to discern this 
distinction, rashly explode Moses altogether, and discard the 
two tables of the law; because they consider it improper for 
Christians to adhere to a doctrine which contains the adminis- 
tration of death. Far from us be this profane opinion; for 
Moses has abundantly taught us, that the law, which in sin- 
ners can only produce death, ought to have a better and more 
excellent use in the saints. For just before his death he thus 
addressed the people: ‘Set your hearts unto all the words 
which I testify among you this day, which ye shall command 
your children to observe, to do all the words of this law. For — 
it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life.” (r) 
But if no one can deny that the law exhibits a perfect model 
of righteousness, either we ought to have no rule for an up- 
right and just life, or it is criminal for us to deviate from it. 
For there are not many rules of life, but one, which is per- 
petually and immutably the same. Wherefore, when David 
represents the life of a righteous man as spent in continual 
meditations on the law, (s) we must not refer it to one period 
of time only, because it is very suitable for all ages, even to 
the end of the world. Let us neither be deterred, therefore, 
nor fly from its instructions, because it prescribes a holiness far 
more complete than we shall attain, as long as we remain in 
the prison of the body. For it no longer exercises towards us 
the part of a rigorous exactor, only to be satisfied by the per- 
fect performance of every injunction; but in this perfection, 


(p) Psalm xix. 7, 8. (r) Deut. xxxii 46, 47. 
(q) Psalm cxix. 105. (s) Psalm i. 2. 


CHAP. VII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 325 


to which it exhorts us, it shows us a goal, to aim at which, 
during the whole of our lives, would be equally conducive to 
our interest and consistent with our duty; in which attempt it 
is happy for us if we fail not. For the whole of this life is a 
course, Which when we have completed, the Lord will grant 
us to reach that goal, towards which at so great a distance our 
efforts are now vigorously directed. 

XIV. Now, because the law, in regard to the faithful, has the 
force of an exhortation, not to bind their consciences with a 
curse, but by its frequent admonitions to arouse their indolence, 
and reprove their imperfection, — many persons, when they de- 
sign to express this liberation from its curse, say that the law 
(I still speak of the moral law) is abrogated to the faithful ; 
not that it no longer enjoins upon them that which is right, 
but only that it ceases to be to them what it was before, no 
longer terrifying and confounding their consciences, condemn- 
ing and destroying them. And such an abrogation of the law 
is clearly taught by Paul. It appears also to have been 
preached by our Lord, since he would not have refuted the 
opinion concerning his abolishing the law, unless it had pre- 
vailed among the Jews. Now, as this opinion could not pre- 
vail without any pretext, it is probable that it proceeded from 
a false interpretation of his doctrine; in the same manner as 
almost all errors have usually taken some colour from the truth. 
But lest we ourselves fall into the same error, let us accurately 
distinguish what is abrogated in the law, and what still remains 
in force. When the Lord declares that he came “ not to destroy 
the law, but to fulfil it,” and that “till heaven and earth shall 
pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, 
till all be fulfilled,” (¢) he sufficiently proves that his advent 
would detract nothing from the observance of the law. And 
with sufficient reason, since the express end of his advent was 
to heal the transgressions of it. The doctrine of the law re- 
mains, therefore, through Christ, inviolable ; which by tuition, 
admonition, reproof, and correction, forms and prepares us for 
every good work. 

XV. The assertions of Paul respecting the abrogation of the 
law evidently relate, not to the instruction itself, but to the power 
of binding the conscience. For the law not only teaches, but © 
authoritatively requires, obedience to its commands. If this 
obedience be not yielded, and even if there be any partial defi- 
ciency of duty, it hurls the thunderbolt of its curse. For this 
reason the Apostle says, that “‘as many as are of the works of the 
law are under the curse; for it is written, Cursed is every one 
shat continueth not in all things.” (w) Now, he affirms those to 
he “of the works of the law,” who place not their righteousness 


(é) Matt. v. 17, 18. (uw) Gal. iii. 10. 


326 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book u 


in the remission of sins, by which we are released from the 
rigour of the law. He teaches us, therefore, that we must be 
released from the bondage of the law, unless we would perish 
in misery under it. But what bondage? the bondage of that 
austere and rigid exaction, which remits nothing from its 
strictest requirements, and permits no transgression to pass 
with impunity ; I say, Christ, in order to redeem us from: this 
curse, was “‘made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed 
is every one that hangeth on atree.’”’(w) In the followmg 
chapter, indeed, he tells us, that Christ was ‘“‘made under the 
law, to redeem them that were under the law;” but in the 
same sense; for he immediately adds, ‘‘ that we might receive 
the adoption of sons.” (x) What is this? that we might not 
be oppressed with a perpetual servitude, which would keep our 
consciences in continual distress with the dread of death. At 
the same time this truth remains for ever unshaken, that the 
law has sustained no diminution of its authority, but ought 
always to receive from us the same veneration and obedience. 

XVI. The case of ceremonies, which have been abrogated, 
not as to their effect, but only as to their use, is very different. 
Their having been abolished by the advent of Christ, is so far 
from derogating from their sanctity, that it rather recommends 
and renders it more illustrious. For as they must have ex- 
hibited to the people, in ancient times, a vain spectacle, unless 
they had discovered the virtue of the death and resurrection 
of Christ, so, if they had not ceased, we should, in the present 
age, have been unable to discern for what purpose they were 
instituted. ‘'T'o prove, therefore, that the observance of them 
is not only needless, but even injurious, Paul teaches us that 
they were shadows, the body of which we have in Christ. (y) 
We see, then, that the truth shines with greater splendour m 
their abolition, than if they still continued to give a distant 


and obscure representation of Christ, who has openly appeared. ~ 


For this reason, at the death of Christ, “the veil of the temple 
was rent in twain from the top to the bottom ;’’(z) because, 
according to the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, the liv- 
ing and express image of the heavenly blessings, which before 
had: been only sketched in obscure lineaments, was now clearly 
revealed. ‘The same truth is conveyed in the declaration of 
Christ, that ‘‘the law and the prophets were until John; since 
that time the kingdom of God is preached.” (a) Not that the 
holy fathers had been destitute of that preaching which con- 
tains the hope of salvation, and of eternal life, but because 
they saw only at a distance, and under shadows, what we now 
contemplate in open day. But the reason, why it was neces- 


(w) Gal. i. 13. (x) Gal. iv. 4, 5. (y) Col. ii. 17. 
(z) Matt. xxvii. 51. (a) Luke xvi. 16. 


: 


cHap. vil.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 327 


sary for the Church of God to ascend from those rudiments to 
sublimer heights, is explained by John the Baptist: ‘the law 
was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus 
Christ.”(b) For although expiation of sin was truly pro- 
mised in the ancient sacrifices, and the ark of the covenant 
was a certain pledge of the paternal favour of God, all these 
would have been mere shadows, if they had not been founded 
in the grace of Christ, where alone we may find true and eter- 
nal stability. Let us firmly maintain, then, that though the 
legal rites have ceased to be observed, yet their very discon- 
tinuance gives us a better knowledge of their great utility 
before the advent of Christ, who, abolishing the observance of 
- them, confirmed their virtue and efficacy in his death. 

XVII. The reasoning of Paul is attended with more diffi- 
culty: “And you, being dead in your sins, and the uncircum- 
cision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, 
having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the hand- 
writing of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary 
to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross,” &c. (¢) 
For it seems to extend the abolition of the law somewhat 
further, as though we had now no concern with its “ ordi- 
nances.” For they are in an error who understand it simply 
of the moral law, the abolition of which they, nevertheless, 
explain to relate to its inexorable severity, rather than to its 
precepts. Others, more acutely and carefully considering the 
words of Paul, perceive that they belong particularly to the 
ceremonial law; and prove that the word “ ordinances”’ is 
more than once used by Paul in that signification. For he 
thus expresses himself to the Ephesians: “ He is our peace, 
who hath made both one; having abolished the law of com- 
mandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself 
of twain one new man.’”’(d) ‘That he there speaks of the 
ceremonies, is very evident; for he calls the law ‘the middle 
wall of partition,” by which the Jews were separated from the 
Gentiles. Wherefore I allow that the former commentators 
are justly censured by these ; but even these do not appear to 
me clearly to explain the meaning of the Apostle. For to 
compare these two passages as in all respects similar, is what 
I by no means approve. When he designs to assure the 
Ephesians of their admission into fellowship with the Israel- 
ites, he informs them, that the impediment which formerly 
prevented it is now removed. ‘hat consisted in ceremo- 
nies. Tor the rites of ablutions and sacrifices, by which the 
Jews were consecrated to the Lord, caused a separation be- 
tween them and the Gentiles. But in the Epistle to the Co- 


(6) John i. 17. (c) Col. ii. 13, 14. (d) Ephes. ii. 14, 15. 


328 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 11, 


lossians he treats of a sublimer mystery. The controversy 
there relates to the Mosaic observances, to which the false 
Apostles were strenuously attempting to subject the Christians. 
But as in the Epistle to the Galatians he goes to the depth of 
that controversy, and reduces it to its source} so also in this 
place. Jor if in the rites you contemplate nothing but the 
necessity of performing them, to what purpose were they 
called a ‘“‘hand-writing that was against us’? and almost the 
whole of our redemption made to consist in its being “ blotted 
out?’? Wherefore it is evident, that here is something to be. 
considered beside the external ceremonies. And I am per- 
suaded that I have discovered the genuine meaning, at least if 
that be conceded to meas a truth, which Augustine somewhere 
very truly asserts, and which he has even borrowed from the 
positive expressions of an Apostle, (e) that in the Jewish cere- 
monies there was rather a confession of sins than an expiation 
of them. For what did they do in offering sacrifices, but 
confess themselves worthy of death, since they substituted 
victims to be slain in their stead? What were their purifiea- 
tions, but. confessions that they were themselves mnpure ? 
Thus the hand-writing both of their sin and of their impurity 
was frequently renewed by them; but that confession afforded 
no deliverance. For which reason the Apostle says that the 
death of Christ effected ‘the redemption of the transgressions 
that were under the first testament.” (f) 'The Apostle, there- 
fore, justly denominates the ceremonies “ a hand-writing agaiist 
those who observe them ;” because by them they publicly at- 
tested their condemnation and impurity. Nor does any ob- 
jection arise from their having been also partakers of the same 
grace with us. For this they obtained in Christ, not m the 
ceremonies, which the Apostle there distinguishes from Christ ; 
for being practised at that time after the imtroduction of the 
gospel, they obscured the glory of Christ. We find, then, 
that the ceremonies, considered by themselves, are beautifully 
and appositely called a ‘‘hand-writing that was against” the 
salvation of men; because-they were solemn mstruments tes- 
tifying their guilt. When the false Apostles wished to brmg 
the Church back to the observance of them, the Apostle deeply 
investigated their signification, and very justly admonished the’ 
Colossians into what circumstances they would relapse, if they 
should suffer themselves to be thus enslaved by them. For 
they would at the same time be deprived of the benefit of 
Christ ; since, by the efernal expiation that he has once effected, 
he has abolished those daily observances, which could only 
attest their sins, but could never cancel them. 


(e) Heb. x. 3—14. (f) Heb. 1x. 15. 


CHAP. vit. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 329 


CHAPTER VIII. 


. AN EXPOSITION OF THE MORAL LAW. 


Here I think it will not be foreign to our subject to intre- 
duce the ten precepts of the law, with a brief exposition of 
them. For this will more clearly evince what I have suggest- 


‘ed, that the service which God has once prescribed always 


remains in full force ; and will also furnish us with a confirma- 
tion of the second remark, that the Jews not only learned from 
it the nature of true piety, but when they saw their inability 
to observe it, were led by the fear of its sentence, though not 
without reluctance, to the Mediator. Now, in giving a sum- 
mary of those things which are requisite to the true knowledge 
of God, we have shown that we can form no conceptions of his 
greatness, but his majesty immediately discovers itself to us, to 
constrain us to worship him. In the knowledge of ourselves, 
we have laid down this as a principal article, that being divest- 
ed of all opinion of our own strength, and confidence in our 
own righteousness, and, on the other hand, discouraged and 
depressed by a consciousness of our poverty, we should learn 
true humility and self-dejection. The Lord accomplishes both 
tltese things in his law, where, in the first place, claiming to 
himself the legitimate authority to command, he calls us to 
revere his Divinity, and prescribes the parts of which this re- 
verence consists; and in the next place, promulgating the rule 
of his righteousness, (the rectitude of which, our nature, being 
depraved and perverted, perpetually opposes ; and from the per- 
fection of which, our ability, through its indolence and imbe- 
cility towards that which is good, is at a great distance,) he 
convicts us both of impotence and of unrighteousness. More- 
over, the internal law, which has before been said to be in- 
scribed and as it were engraven on the hearts of all men, sug- 
gests to us in some measure the same things which are to be 
learned from the two tables. For our conscience does not 
permit us to sleep in perpetual insensibility, but is an internal 
witness and monitor of the duties we owe to God, shows us 
the difference between good and evil, and so accuses us when 
we deviate from our duty. But man, involved as he is in a 
cloud of errors, scarcely obtains from this law of nature the 
smallest idea of what worship is accepted by God ; but is cer- 
tainly at an immense distance from a right understanding of it. 
Besides, he is so elated with arrogance and ambition, and so 
blinded with self-love, that he cannot yet take a view of him- 
VOL. I. 42 


330 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book u 


self, and as it were retire within, that he may learn to submit 
and humble himself, and to confess his misery. Since it was 
necessary, therefore, both for our dulness and obstinacy, the Lord 
gave us a written law; to declare with greater certainty what 
in the law of nature was too obscure, and by arousing our — 
indolence, to make a deeper impression on our understanding 
and memory. 

II. Now, it is easy to perceive, what we are to learn from 
the law ; namely, that God, as he is our Creator, justly sustains 
towards us the character of a Father and of a Lord; and that 
on this account we owe to him glory and reverence, love and 
fear. Moreover, that we are not at liberty to follow every 
thing to which the violence of our passions may incite us; but 
that we ought to be attentive to his will, and to’ practise 
nothing but what is pleasmg to him. Im the next place, 
that righteousness and rectitude are a delight, but iniquity an 
abomination to him; and that, therefore, unless we will with 
impious ingratitude rebel against our Maker, we must necessa- 
rily spend our whole lives in the practice of righteousness. — 
For if we manifest a becoming reverence for him, only when 
we prefer his will to our own, it follows that there is no other 
legitimate worship of him, but the observance of righteousness, 
sanctity, and purity. Nor can we pretend to excuse ourselves 
by a want of ability, like insolvent debtors. For it 1s improper 
for us to measure the glory of God by our ability; for what- 
ever may be our characters, he ever remains like himself, the 
friend of righteousness, the enemy of iniquity. Whatever he 
requires of us, since he can require nothing but what is right, 
Wwe are under a natural obligation to obey ; but our inability is 
our own fault. For if we are bound by our own passions, which 
are under the government of sin, so that we are not at liberty 
to obey our Father, there is no reason why we should plead 
this necessity in our defence, the criminality of which is with- 
in ourselves, and must be imputed to us. 

III. When we have made such a proficiency as this by 
means of the instruction of the law, we ought, under the same 
teacher, to retire within ourselves; from which we’may learn 
two things: First, by comparing our life with the righteousness 
of the law, we shall find, that we are very far from acting 
agreeably to the will of God, and are therefore unworthy to 
retain a place among his creatures, much less to be numbered 
among his children. Secondly, by examining our strength, 
we shall see, that it is not only unequal to the observance of 
the law, but a mere nullity. The necessary consequence of 
this will be a diffidence in our own strength, and an anxiety 
and trepidation of mind. For the conscience cannot sustain 
the load of iniquity, without an immediate discovery of the 


cs 


CHAP. VIII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 301 


Divine judgment. And the Divine judgment cannot be per- 
ceived, without inspiring a dread of death. Compelled also by 
proofs of its impotence, it cannot avoid falling into an absolute 
despair of its own strength. Both these dispositions produce 
humility and dejection. The result of all this is, that the man 
terrified with the apprehension of eternal death, which he 
sees justly impending over him for his unrighteousness, betakes | 
himself entirely to the Divine mercy, as to the only port of 
salvation ; and perceiving his inability to fulfil the commands 
of the law, and feeling nothing but despair in himself, he im- 
plores and expects assistance from another quarter. 

1V. But not contented with having conciliated a reverence 
for his righteousness, the Lord has also subjoined promises and 
threatenings, in order that our hearts might imbibe a love for 
him, and at the same time a hatred to iniquity. For since the 
eyes of our mind are too dim to be attracted with the mere 
beauty of virtue, our most merciful Father has been graciously 
pleased to allure us to the love and worship of himself by the 
sweetness of his rewards. He announces, therefore, that’he has 
reserved rewards for virtue, and that the person who obeys his 
commandments shall not labour in vain. He proclaims, on the 
contrary, not only that unrighteousness is execrable in his sight, 
but also that it shall not escape with impunity; but that he 
will avenge himself on all the despisers of his majesty. And 
to urge us by all possible motives, he promises also the bless- 
ings of the present life, as well as eternal felicity, to the obedi- 
ence of those who keep his commandments, the transgressors 
of which he threatens not only with present calamities, but 
with the torments of eternal death. For that promise, “ these 
if a man do, he shall live in them,” (g) and this correspondent 
threatening, ‘the soul that sinneth, it shall die,” (2) undoubt- 
edly relate to a future and endless immortality or death. 
Wherever we read of the Divine benevolence or wrath, the 
former comprehends eternal life, the latter eternal destruction. 
Now, of present blessings and curses, the law contains a long 
catalogue. ‘The penal sanctions display the consummate purity 
of God, which cannot tolerate iniquity ; while the promises 
not only manifest his perfect love of rghteousness, which he 
cannot defraud of its reward, but likewise illustrate his won- 
derful goodness. For since we, with all that belongs to us, 
are indebted to his majesty, whatever he requires of us, he 
most justly demands as the payment of a debt; but the pay- 
ment of a debt is not entitled to remuneration. Therefore he 
recedes from the strictness of his claims, when he proposes a 


reward to our obedience, which is not performed spontaneously, 


(g) Lev. xviii. 5. (h) Ezek. xviii. 4. 


339 INSTITUTES OF THE _ [BOOK i. 


as if it were notaduty. But the effect of those promises on 
us has partly been mentioned already, and will hereafter more 
clearly appear in its proper place. Suffice it at present, if we 
remember and consider that the promises of the law contain no 
mean recommendation of righteousness, to make 1t more evident 
how much God is pleased with the observance of it ; and that 
the penal sanctions are annexed, to render unrighteousness more 
execrable, lest the sinner, amidst the fascinations of sin, should 
forget that the judgment of the Legislator awaits him. 

V. Now, since the Lord, when about to deliver a rule of 
perfect righteousness, referred all the parts of it to his own will, 
this shows that nothing is more acceptable to him than obedi- 
ence. ‘This is worthy of the most diligent observation, since 
the licentiousness of the human mind is so inclined to the fre- 
quent invention of various services in order to merit his favour. 
For this irreligious affectation of religion, which is a principle 
innate in the human mind, has betrayed itself in all ages, and 
betrays itself even in the present day ; for men always take a 
pleasure in contriving some way of attaining righteousness, 
which is not agreeable to the Divine word. Hence, among 
those which are commonly esteemed good works, the precepts 
of the law hold a very contracted station, the numberless 
multitude of human inventions occupying almost the whole 
space. But what was the design of Moses, unless it was to 
repress such an unwarrantable license, when, after the pro- 
mulgation of the law, he addressed the people in the following 
manner! ‘ Observe and hear all these words which I command 
thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children 
after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and 
right in the sight of tle Lord thy God. What thing soever I 
command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, 
nor diminish from it.” (¢) And before, when he had declared 
that this was their wisdom and their understanding in the sight 
of other nations, that they had received statutes, and judgments, 
and ceremonies, from the Lord, he had added, ‘ Take heed to 
thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the 
things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from 
thy heart all the days of thy life.” (x) Foreseeing that the 
Israelites would not rest, but, even after the reception of the law, 
would labour to produce new species of righteousness, foreign 
from what the law requires, unless they should be mgorously 
restrained, God pronounces that his word comprehends the 
perfection of righteousness ; and yet, though this ought most_ 
effectually to have prevented them, they were guilty of that 
very presumption which was so expressly forbidden. But 


(¢) Deut. xii. 28, 32. (k) Deut. iv. 5, 6, 9. 


CHAP. viit.| | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. ss 


what is this tous? We are certainly bound by the same de- 
claration ; for the claims of the Lord on behalf of his law, that 
it contains the. doctrine of perfect righteousness, beyond all 
doubt remain perpetually the same ; yet not contented with it, 
we are wonderfully laborious in inventing and performing other 
good works, one after another. ‘l'he best remedy for this fault 
will be a constant attention to this reflection ; that the law was 
given to us from heaven to teach us a perfect righteousness ; 
that in it no righteousness is taught, but that which is con- 
formable to the decrees of the Divine will; that it is therefore 
vain to attempt new species of works in order to merit the 
favour of God, whose legitimate worship consists solely in 
obedience, but that any pursuit of good works deviating from 
the law of God is an intolerable profanation of the Divine and 
real righteousness. ‘There is much truth also in the observation 
of Augustine, who calls obedience to God sometimes the parent 
and guardian, and sometimes the origin of all virtues. 

VI. But when we have given an exposition of the Divine 
law, we shall then more suitably and profitably confirm what 
has been already advanced concerning its office and use. ’ Be- 
fore we enter, however, on the discussion of each article sepa- 
rately, it will be useful to premise some things which may 
contribute to a general knowledge of it. First, let it be under- 
stood, that the law inculcates a conformity of life, not only to 
external probity, but also to internal and spiritual righteousness. 
Now, though none can deny this, yet very few persons pay proper 
attention to it. ‘This arises from their not considering the Le- 
sislator, by whose nature we ought to estimate also the nature of 
the law. If a king prohibit, by an edict, adultery, murder, or 
theft, no man, I confess, will be liable to the penalty of such 
a law, who has only conceived in his mind a desire to commit 
adultery, murder, or theft, but has not perpetrated any of them. 
Because the superintendence of a mortal legislator extends only 
to the external conduct, and his prohibitions are not violated 
unless the crimes be actually committed. But God, whose eye 
nothing escapes, and who esteems not so much the external 
appearance as the purity of the heart, in the prohibition of 
adultery, murder, and theft, comprises a prohibition of lust, 
wrath, hatred, coveting what belongs to another, fraud, and 
every similar vice. For, being a spiritual Legislator, he ad- 
dresses himself to the soul as much as to the body. Now, the 
murder of the soul is wrath and hatred; the theft of the soul 
is evil concupiscence and avarice; the adultery of the soul is 
lust. But it will be said, that human laws also relate to designs 
and intentions, and not to fortuitous events. This I grant; but 
they relate to such designs and intentions as have been mani- 
fested in outward actions. They examine and consider with 


334, INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK If, 


what intention every act has been performed ; but do not scru- 
tinize the secret thoughts. Human laws therefore are satisfied, 
when a man abstains from external transgression. But, on the 
contrary, the Divine law being given to our minds, the proper 
regulation of them is the principal requisite to a righteous 
observance of it. But men in general, even while they reso- 
lutely dissemble their contempt of the law, dispose their eyes, 
their feet, their hands, and all the parts of their body, to some 
kind of observance of it, while at the same time their hearts 
are entirely alienated from all obedience to it, and they suppose 
that they have discharged their duty, if they have concealed 
from man what they practise in the sight of God. They hear 
the commands, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit 
adultery, Thou shalt not steal. They draw not the sword to 
commit murder; they never associate with harlots; they lay 
no violent hands on the property of others. All these things 
thus far are well; but in their whole souls they breathe after 
murders, they kindle into lust, they look with dishonest eyes 
on the property of others, and in their cupidity they devour it. 
Now, then, they are destitute of the principal requisite of the 
law. Whence arises such gross stupidity, but from discarding 
the Legislator, and accommodating a righteousness to their own 
inclination? These persons Paul strongly opposes, when he 
affirms that “the law is spiritual;’’ (2) signifying that it re- 
quires not only the obedience of the soul, the understanding, 
and the will, but even an angelic purity, which, being cleansed 
from all the pollution of the flesh, may savour entirely of the 
Spirit. 

VII. When we say that this is the sense of the law, we 
are not introducing a novel interpretation of our own, but fol- 
lowing Christ, who is the best interpreter of it. For the people 
having imbibed from the Pharisees the corrupt opinion, that 
he, who has perpetrated no external act of disobedience to the 
law, is an observer of the law, he confutes this very dangerous 
error, and pronounces an unchaste look at a woman to be 
adultery; he declares them to be murderers, who hate a 
brother; he makes them ‘in danger of the judgment,” who 
have only conceived resentment in their hearts; them “in 
danger of the council,” who in murmuring or quarrelling have 
discovered any sign of an angry mind; and them ‘in danger 
of hell fire,” who with opprobrious and slanderous language 
have broken forth into open rage. (m) Persons who have not 
perceived these things, have pretended that Christ was another 
Moses, the giver of an evangelical law, which supplied the 
deficiencies of the law of Moses. Whence that common max- 


(l) Rom. vii. 14. (m) Matt. v. 22, 28 


CHAP. vull.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 335 


im, concerning the perfection of the evangelical law, that it is 
far superior to the old law —a maxim in many respects very 
pernicious. [or when we introduce a summary of the com- 
mandments, it will appear from Moses himself what an indig- 
nity this fixes on the Divine law. It certainly insinuates that 
all the sanctity of the fathers under the Old Testament, was 
not very remote from hypocrisy, and draws us aside from that 
one perpetual rule of righteousness. But there is not the least 
difficulty in the confutation of this error; for they have sup- 
posed that Christ made additions to the law, whereas he only 
restored it to its genuine purity, by clearing it from the obscu- 
rities and blemishes which it had contracted from the false- 
hoods and the leaven of the Pharisees. 

VIII. It must be observed, in the second place, that the 
commands and prohibitions always imply more than the words 
express; but this must be so restricted, that we may not make 
it a Lesbian rule, by the assistance of which the Scripture 
may be licentiously perverted, and any sense be extorted at 
pleasure from any passage. For some people, by this immo- 
derate and excursive liberty, cause one person to despise the 
authority of the law, and another to despair of understanding 
it. Therefore, if it be possible, we must find some way that 
may lead us by a straight and steady course to the will of 
God. We must inquire, I say, how far our interpretation 
ought to exceed the limits of the expressions; that it may 
evidently appear, not to be an appendix of human glosses 
annexed to the Divine law, but a faithful explanation of the 
pure and genuine sense of the legislator. Indeed, in all the 
commandments, the figure synecdoche, by which a part is ex- 
pressed instead of the whole, is so conspicuous, that he may 
justly be the object of ridicule, who would restrict the sense 
of the law within the narrow limits of the words. It is plain, 
then, that a sober exposition of the law goes beyond the words 
of it; but how far, remains doubtful, unless some rule be laid 
down. The best rule, then, I conceive will be, that the ex- 
position be directed to the design of the precept; that in re- 
gard to every precept it should be considered for what end it 
was given. For example, every precept is either imperative 
or prohibitory. The true meaning of both these kinds of pre- 
cepts will immediately occur to us, if we consider the design 
or the end of them; as the end of the fifth commandment is, 
that honour may be given to them to whom God assigns it. 
The substance of this precept, then, is, that it is right, and 
pleasing to God, that we should honour those on whom he has 
conferred any excellence, and that contemptuous and contuma- 
cious conduct towards them is an abomination to him. The 
design of the first commandment is, that God alone may be 


336 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooxK 11, 


worshipped. The substance of this precept, then, will be, that 
true piety, that is, the worship of his majesty, is pleasing to . 
God, and that he abominates impiety. Thus in every com- 
mandment we should first examine the subject of it; in the 
next place we should inquire the end of it, till we discover 
what the Legislator really declares in it to be either pleasing or 
displeasing to him. Lastly, we must draw an argument from 
this commandment to the opposite of it, in this manner: — If 
this please God, the contrary must displease him ; if this dis- 
please him, the contrary must please him; if he enjoin this, 
he forbids the contrary; if he forbid this, he enjoins the 
contrary. 

IX. What we now rather obscurely hint at, will be fully 
and practically elucidated in our exposition of the command- 
ments. Wherefore it is sufficient to have suggested it; only 
the last position, which otherwise might not be understood, or, 
if understood, might seem unreasonable, requires to be briefly 
established by suitable proof. It needs no proof, that an in- 
junction of any thing good is a prohibition of the opposite 
evil ; for every man will concede it. And common sense will 
easily admit, that a prohibition of crimes is a command to — 
practise the contrary duties. It is commonly considered as a 
commendation of virtues, when censure is passed on the op- 
posite vices. But we require somewhat more than is com- 
monly intended. by those forms of expression. For men 
generally understand the virtue which is opposite to any vice 
to be an abstinence from that vice; but we affirm that it goes 
further, even to the actual performance of the opposite duty. 
Therefore, in this precept, ‘‘ Thou shalt not kill,” the common 
sense of mankind. will perceive nothing more than that we 
ought to abstain from all acts of injury to others, and from all” 
desire to commit any such acts. I maintain that it also im- 
plies, that we should do every thing that we possibly can 
towards the preservation of the life of our neighbour. And 
not to speak without reason, I prove it in the following man- 
ner: God forbids us to injure the safety of our brother, because 
he wishes his life to be dear and precious to us: he therefore 
at the same time requires of us all those offices of love which. 
may contribute to the preservation of it. Thus we perceive, 
that the end of the precept will always discover to us what- 
ever it enjoins or forbids us to do. 

X. Many reasons are frequently given, why God has, as it 
were, in incomplete precepts, rather partially intimated his 
will than positively expressed it; but the reason which affords 
me more satisfaction than all others is the following. Because ~ 
the flesh always endeavours to extenuate, and by specious pre- 
texts to conceal the turpitude of sin, unless it be exceedingly 


* cHaP. vult.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 337 


palpable, he has proposed, by way of example, in every kind of 
transgression, that which is most atrocious and detestable, and 
the mention of which inspires us with horror, in order that our 
minds might be impressed with the greater detestation of 
every sin. ‘This often deceives us in forming an opinion of 
vices; if they be private, we extenuate them. The Lord 
destroys these subterfuges, when he accustoms us vo refer the 
whole multitude of vices to these general heads, which best 
represent the abominable nature of every species of transgres- 
sions. For example, anger and hatred are not supposed to be 
such execrable crimes when they are mentioned under their 
own proper appellations ; but when they are forbidden to us 
under the name of murder, we have a clearer perception how 
abominable they are in the view of God, by whose word they 
are classed under such a flagitious and horrible species of 
crimes; and being influenced by his judgment, we accustom 
ourselves more seriously to consider the atrociousness of those 
offences which we previously accounted trivial. 

XI. In the third place, let it be considered, what is 1ntended 
by the division of the Divine law into two tables; the frequent 
and solemn mention of which all wise men will judge not to 
be without some particular design. And we have a reason at 
hand, which removes all ambiguity on this subject. For God 
has divided his law into two parts, which comprise the per- 
fection of righteousness, so that he has assigned the first part 
to the duties of religion, which peculiarly belongs to the wor- 
ship of his majesty, and the second to those duties of charity, 
which respect men. The first foundation of righteousness is 
certainly the worship of God ; and if this be destroyed, all the 
other branches of righteousness, like the parts of a disjointed 
and falling edifice, are torn asunder and scattered. For what 
kind of righteousness will you pretend to, because you refrain 
from harassing men by acts of theft and rapine, if at the same 
time you atrociously and sacrilegiously defrand the majesty of 
God of the glory which is due to him?—because you do not 
pollute your body with fornication, if you blasphemously pro- 
fane the sacred name of God ?—because you murder no man, 
if you strive to destroy and extinguish all memory of God? It 
is in vain, therefore, to boast of righteousness without religion ; 
as well might the trunk of a body be exhibited as a beautiful 
object, after the head has been cut off. Nor is religion only 
the head of righteousness, but the very soul of it, constituting 
all its life and vigour; for without the fear of God, men pre- 
serve no equity and love among themselves. We therefore call 
the worship of God the principle and foundation of righteous- 
ness, because, if that be wanting, whatever equity, continence, 
and temperance men may practise among themselves, it is all 
VOL. I. 


338 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book . 


vain and frivolous in the sight of God. We assert also that it 
is the source and soul of righteousness; because men are 
taught by it to live temperately and justly with one another, if 
they venerate God as the judge of right and wrong. In the 
first table, therefore, he instructs us in piety and the proper — 
duties of religion, in which his majesty is to be worshipped ; m 
the second he prescribes the duties which the fear of his name 
should excite us to practise in society. For this reason our 
Lord, as the evangelists inform us, (7) summarily comprised the 
whole law in two principal points — that we love God with all 
our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength; and 
that we love our neighbour as ourselves. Of the two parts in 
which he comprehends the whole law, we see how he directs 
one towards God, and assigns the other to men. 

XI. But, although the whole law is contained in these two 
principal points, yet our God, in order to remove every pretext 
of excuse, has been pleased in the ten commandments more 
diffusely and explicitly to declare, as well those things which 
relate to our honour, love, and fear of him, as those which per- 
tain to that charity, ‘which he commands us for his sake to ex-., 
ercise towarls men. Nor is it a useless study to examine into 
the division of the commandments; provided you remember it 
is a subject of such a nature, that every man ought to be at 
liberty to judge of it, and that we ought not contentiously to 
oppose any who may differ from us respecting it. But we are 
under a necessity of touching on this topic, lest the reader 
should despise or wonder at the division that we shall adopt, 
as anovelinvention. That the law is divided into ten precepts, 
is beyond all controversy, being frequently established by the 
authority of God himself. The question, therefore, is not con- 
cerning the number of the precepts, but concerning the manner 
of dividing them. Those who divide them, so as to assign three 
precepts to the first table, and leave the remaining seven to the 
second, expunge from the number the precept concerning 
images, or at least conceal it under the first; whereas it is 
undoubtedly delivered by the Lord as a distinct commandment, 
But the tenth, against coveting the property of our neighbour, 
they improperly divide into two. We shall see presently 
that such a method of division was unknown in purer ages. 
Others reckon with us four articles in the first table; but 
the first commandment they consider as a simple promise, 
without a precept. Now, I understand the “ten words” 
mentioned by Moses to be ten precepts; and I think I see 
that number disposed in the most beautiful order. And 
therefore, unless I am convinced by clear argument, leaving 


(n) Matt. xxii. 37—40. Luke x. 27. 


CHAP. VIII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 339 


them in possession of their opinion, I shall follow what appears 
to me to be preferable ; that is, that what they make the first 
precept is a preface to the whole law; that it is followed by 
the precepts, four belonging to the first table and six to the 
second, in the order in which they will now be recited. Origen 
-has mentioned this division as if it were universally received in 
his time without any controversy. Augustine also coincides 
with us; for in enumerating them to Boniface, he observes 
this order: That God alone be religiously worshipped ; that no 
adoration be paid to an idol ; that the name of the Lord be not 
taken in vain. He had before spoken separately of the sha- 
dowy precept of the sabbath. It is true, that in another passage 
-he expresses his approbation of the former division, but for a 
most trivial reason ; namely, that if the first table be digested 
into three precepts, the trinal number will be a more conspi- 
cuous exhibition of the mystery of the Trinity. In the same 
place, however, he does not conceal that in other respects he 
prefers our division. Beside these writers, the atithor of the 
unfinished treatise on Matthew is of the same opinion with us. 
Josephus, doubtless according to the common opinion of his 
time, assigns five precepts to each table. ‘This is repugnant to 
reason, because it confounds the distinction between religion 
and charity ; and is also refuted by the authority of our Lord, 
who in Matthew places the precept concerning honour to pa- 
rents in the second table. Now let us hear God himself speak- 
ing in his own words. 


THE FIRST COMMANDMENT. 


I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out. of the 
land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt 
have no other gods before me. 


XIII. Whether you make the first sentence a part of the 
first commandment, or read it separately, is a matter of indif- 
ference to me, provided you allow it to be a preface to the 
whole law. The first object of attention in making laws is to 
suard against their being abrogated by contempt. Therefore 
God in the first place provides, that the majesty of the law, 
which he is about to deliver, may never fall into contempt ; 
and to sanction it he uses a threefold argument. He asserts 
his authority and right of giving commands, and thereby lays 
his chosen people under a necessity of obeying them. He 
exhibits a promise of grace, to allure them by its charms to 
the pursuit of holiness. He reminds the Israelites of his fa- 
vour, to convict them of ingratitude if they do not conduct 
themselves in a manner correspondent to his goodness. The 


3.4.0 INSTITUTES OF THE. | [BooK 1. 


name Lorp, or JeHovau, designates his authority and legiti- 
mate dominion. For if all things be of him, and if in him all 
things consist, it is reasonable that all things be referred to 
him, agreeably to the observation of Paul.(o) Therefore by 
this word alone we are brought into complete subjection to the 
power of the Divine majesty ; for it would be monstrous for us 
to desire to remove ourselves from his jurisdiction, out of 
whom we cannot exist. 

XIV. After having shown that he has a rignt to command, 
and that obedience is his just due, — that he may not appear to 
constrain us by necessity alone, he sweetly allures us by pro- 
nouncing himself the God of the Church. For the expression 
implies the mutual relation which is contained in that pro- 
mise, “I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” ( p) 
Whence Christ proves the immortality of Abraham, Isaac, and 
Jacob, from. the declaration of the Lord, that he is their God. (q) 
Wherefore it is the same as if he had said, I have chosen you 
as my people, not only to bless you in the present life, but-to 
bestow upon you abundant felicity in the life to come. 'The 
design of this favour is remarked in various places in the law; 
for when the Lord in mercy condescends to number us among 
the society of his people, “‘ He chooseth us,” says Moses, “ to 
be a peculiar people unto himself, a holy people, to keep his 
commandments.” (7) Hence that exhortation,‘ Ye shall be 
holy, for Iam holy.’ (s) Now, from these two considerations 
is derived the remonstrance of the Lord by the Prophet: “A 
son honoureth his father, and a servant his master ; if then I be 
a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is 
my fear ?” (¢) 

XV. Next follows a recital of his kindness, which ought to 
produce a most powerful effect upon our minds, in proportion 
to the detestable guilt of ingratitude, even among men. He 
reminded the Israelites, indeed, of a favour which they had 
recently experienced, but which, on account of its magnitude 
and concomitant miracles, being worthy of everlasting remem- 
brance, might also have an influence on succeeding generations. 
Besides, it was particularly suitable to the present occasion, 
when the law was about to be published; for the Lord sug- 
gests that they were liberated from a miserable slavery in order 
that they might serve the author of their liberty with a prompt- 
itude of reverence and obedience. ‘T’o retain us in the true 
and exclusive worship of himself, he generally distinguishes 
himself by certain epithets, by which he discriminates his sa- 
cred name from all idols and fictitious deities. For, as I have 


(0) Rom. x1. 36. (r) Deut. vii. 6; xiv. 2; xxvi. 18. 
(p) Jer. xxxi. 33. (s) Lev. xi. 44. 
(q) Matt. xxii. 32 (t) Mal. i. 6. - 


CHAP. vil. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION, 841° 


before observed, such is our proneness to vanity and presump- 
tion, that as soon as God is mentioned, our mind is unable to 
guard itself from falling into some vain imagination. There- 
fore, when God intends to apply a remedy to this evil, he 
adorns his majesty with certain titles, and thus circumscribes 
us with barriers, that we may not run into various follies, and 
presumptuously invent to ourselves some new deity, discarding 
the living God, and setting up an idol in his stead. For this 
reason the Prophets, whenever they intend a proper designa- 
tion of him, invest him, and as it were surround him, with 
those characters under which he had manifested himself to the 
people of Israel. Yet, when he is called “the God of Abra- 
ham,” or “the God of Israel,’”? when he is said to reside “ be- 
tween the cherubim,” “in the temple,” ‘at Jerusalem,” (v) 
these and similar forms of expression do not confine him to 
one place, or to one nation; they are only used to fix the 
thoughts of the pious on that God, who, in the covenant which 
he has made with Israel, has given stich a representation of 
himself, that it is not proper to deviate in the smallest instance 
from such a model. Never theless, let it be concluded, that the 
deliverance of the Jews is mentioned to induce them to devote 
themselves with more alacrity to the service of God, who just- 
ly claims a right to their obedience. But, that we may not 
suppose this to have no relation to us, it behoves us to con- 
sider, that the servitude of Israel in Egypt was a type of the 
spiritual captivity, in which we are all detained, till our celes- 
tial Deliverer extricates us by the power of his arm, and intro- 
duces us into the kingdom of liberty. As formerly, therefore, 
when he designed to restore the dispersed Israelites to the wor- 
ship of his name, he rescued them from the intolerable tyranny 
of Pharaoh, by which they were oppressed, so now he delivers 
all those, whose God he declares hymself to be, from the fatal 
dominion of Satan, which was represented by that corporeal 
captivity. Wherefore there is no one, whose mind ought not to 
be excited to listen to the law, which he is informed came 
from the King of kings; from whom as all creatures derive 
their origin, so it is reasonable that they should regard him as 
their end in all things. Every man, I say, ought to welcome 
the Legislator ; to observe whose commands he is taught that 
he is particularly chosen ; from whose benignity he expects an 
abundance of temporal blessings, and a life of immortality and 
glory ; by whose wonderful power and mercy he knows him- 
self to be delivered from the jaws of death. 

XVI. Having firmly established the authority of his law, 
he publishes the first commandment, ‘That we should have 


(x) Exod. iii. 6. Amosi.2. Hab. ii. 20. Psalm Ixxx.1; xcix.1. Isaiah 
xxxvik 16. : 


JA42 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book m. 


no other gods before him.” The end of this precept is, that 
God chooses to have the sole preéminence, and to enjoy un- 
diminished his authority among his people. ‘To produce this 
end, he enjoins us to keep at a distance from all impiety and 
superstition, by which we should either diminish or obseure 
the glory of his Deity; and for the same reason he directs us 
to worship and adore him in the exercise of true piety. The 
simplicity of the language almost expresses this; for we can- 
not “have”? God without at the same time comprising all that 
belongs tohim. Therefore, when he forbids us to “ have” any 
other gods, he implies, that we must not transfer to another 
what belongs to him. But although the duties we owe to God 
-are innumerable, yet they may not improperly be classed under 
four general heads — adoration, a necessary branch of which is 
the spiritual obedience of the conscience; trust ; invocation ; 
and thanksgiving. By adoration I mean the reverence and 
worship which he receives from every one of us who has sub- 
mitted to his majesty. Wherefore it is not without reason that 
I make it partly to consist in a subjection of our consciences to 
his law ; [for it is a spiritual homage which is,rendered to him, 
as to a sovereign King possessed of all power over our souls. | 
Trust is a secure dependence on him arising from a knowledge 
of his perfections; when ascribing to him all wisdom, right- 
eousness, power, truth, and goodness, we esteem ourselves 
happy only in communications from him. Invocation is the 
application of our minds, under every pressure of necessity, 
resorting to his fidelity, faithfulness, and assistance, as its only 
defence. Thanksgiving is gratitude, which ascribes to him the 
praise of all blessings. As the Lord permits no portion of these 
duties to be transferred to another, so he commands them to be 
wholly given to himself. Nor will it be sufficient for you to 
refrain from worshipping any other god, unless you also refrain 
from imitating certain nefarious despisers, who take the com- 
pendious method of treating all religions with contempt. But 
the observance of this precept must be preceded by true reli- 
gion, leading our minds to the living God; that being endued 
with the knowledge of him, they may aspire to admire, fear, 
and worship his majesty, to receive his communication of 
blessings, to request his aid upon all occasions, to acknowledge 
and celebrate the magnificence of his works, as the sole end in 
all the actions of our lives. We must also beware of corrupt 
superstition, by which those whose minds are diverted from the 
true God, are carried about after various deities. Therefore, if 
we be contented with one God, let us remember what has be- 
fore been observed, that all fictitious deities must be driven far 
away, and that we must not divide that worship which he 


claims exclusively to himself. For it is criminal to detract 
$ 


CHAP. | vill. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 343 


even the smallest portion from his glory; he must be left in 
possession of all that belongs to him. The following clause, 
‘before me,’’ aggravates the atrociousness of the offence ; for 
God is provoked to jealousy whenever we substitute the fig- 
ments of our own minds instead of him; just as an immodest 
woman, by openly introducing an adulterer into the presence 
of her husband, would inflame his mind with the greater re- 
sentment. When God, therefore, by the presence of his power 
and grace, gave a proof of his regard to the people whom he 
had chosen, — in order the more forcibly to deter them from the 
erime of rebellion against him, he warns them of the impossi- 
bility of introducing new deities without his being a witness 
and spectator of the sacrilege. For this presumption rises to 
the highest degree of impiety, when man imagines that he can 
elude the observation of God in his acts of rebellion. God, on 
the contrary, proclaims, that whatever we devise, whatever we 
attempt, whatever we perform, is present to his view. Our 
conscience must therefore be pure even from the most latent 
thoughts of apostasy, if we wish our religion to obtain the ap- 
probation of the Lord. For he requires from us the glory due 
to his Divinity undiminished and uncorrupted, not only in ex- 
ternal confession, but in his own eyes, which penetrate the 
inmost recesses of our hearts. 


THE SECOND COMMANDMENT. 


Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any like- 
ness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the 
earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou 
shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. 

\ 


XVII. As in the preceding commandment the Lord has 
declared himself to be the one God, besides whom no other 
deities ought to be imagined or worshipped,’ so in this he more 
clearly reveals his nature, and the kind of worship with which 
he ought to be honoured, that we may not dare to form any 
- carnal conceptions of him. ‘The end, therefore, of this precept 
is, that he will not have his legitimate worship profaned with 
superstitious rites. Wherefore, in a word, he calls us off, and 
wholly abstracts us from carnal observances, which our foolish 
minds are accustomed to devise, when they conceive of God 
according to the grossness of their own apprehensions ; and 
therefore he calls us to the service which rightfully belongs to 
him; that is, the spiritual worship which he has instituted. 
He marks what is the grossest transgression of this kind; that is, 
external idolatry. And this precept consists of two parts. The 
first restrains us from licentiously daring to make God, who is 


834A INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK I, 


incomprehensible, the subject of our senses, or to represent him 
under any visible form. The second prohibits us from paying 
religious adoration to any images. He likewise briefly enu- 
merates all the forms, in which he used to be represented by 
profane and, superstitious nations. By those things which are 
in heaven, he means the sun, the moon, and the other stars, 
and perhaps birds; as, when he explains his meaning in the 
fourth chapter of Deuteronomy, he mentions birds as well as 
the stars.(w) This I should not have remarked, had I not 
known some persons injudiciously refer this clause to angels. 
I omit the other particulars, as needing no explanation. And 
in the first book (#) we have already sufficiently proved that 
whatever visible representations of God are invented by man, 
are diametrically opposite to his nature ; and that, therefore, as 
soon as ever idols are introduced, true religion is immediately 
corrupted and adulterated. 

XVUTL The penal sanction which is annexed ought to have 
no small influence in arousing us from our lethargy. He thus 
threatens : 


For I the Lord thy Godam a jealous God, visiting the iniquity 
of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth 
generation of them that hate me; and showing mercy unto 
thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 


This is equivalent to a declaration that it is to him alone 
that we ought to adhere. And to urge us to it, he announces 
his power, which he permits none with impunity to despise or 
undervalue. For the Hebrew word EH, which is here used for 
God, is expressive of strength. In the second place, he calls 
himself “‘a jealous God,” who can bear no rival. ‘Thirdly, he 
declares that he will avenge his majesty and glory on those 
who transfer it to creatures or to graven mages; and that not 
with the transient punishment of the original transgressors only, 
but of their posterity to the third and fourth generation ; that is, 
of those who shall imitate the impiety of their fathers; as he 
also permanently displays his mercy and goodness, through a 
long line of posterity, to those who love him and keep his law. 
It is very common for God to assume the character of a hus- 
band to us; for the union, in which he connects us with him- 
self, when he receives us into the bosom of his Church, bears a 
resemblance to the sacred conjugal relation, which requires to 
be supported by mutual fidelity. As he performs towards us 
all the duties of a true and faithful husband, so he demands 
from us the reciprocal duties of conjugal love and chastity ; that 


(w) Deut. iv. 17. ; (x) Cap. xi. xii. 


CHAP. VII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 34,5 


is, that we do not prostitute our souls to Satan, to lust, and to 
the impurity of the carnal appetites. Wherefore, when he 
reproves the apostasy of the Jews, he complains that they 
had discarded chastity, and were polluted with adulteries. (vy) 
Therefore, as a husband, in proportion to the superiority of his 
purity and chastity, is the more grievously incensed, if he per- - 
ceive the affection of his wife inclining to a rival, so the Lord, 
who has in truth espoused us to himself, declares that he feels 
the most ardent jealousy, whenever we neglect the sacred purity 
of his conjugal relation to us, and defile ourselves with cri- 
minal lusts, but especially when we transfer to any other, or 
adulterate with any superstition, the worship of his majesty, 
which ought to be preserved in the most consummate perfec- 
tion; since by such conduct we not only violate the faith 
pledged in our nuptials, but even pollute our souls with spirit- 
ual adultery. 

XIX. Let us inquire what he intends by his threatening to 
“ visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third 
and fourth generation.” For besides that it is inconsistent with 
the equity of the Divine justice to inflict upon an innocent per- 
son the punishment due to the offences of another, God himself 
declares that “the son shall not bear the iniquity of the fa- 
ther.” (z) But this expression is repeated more than once, con- 
cerning a deferring to future generations of the punishments of 
crimes committed by their ancestors. For Moses frequently 
speaks of “the Lord visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon 
the children unto the third and fourth generation.” (a) 
In like manner Jeremiah: ‘Thou showest loving-kindness 
unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers 
into the bosom of their children after them.” (6) Some, who 
labour very hard to solve this difficulty, are of opinion that 
its meaning is to be confined to temporal punishments; 
which if children sustain through the sins of their parents, 
there is nothing absurd in it; because they frequently con- 
duce to the salvation of those on whom they are inflicted. 
This is certainly true. For Isaiah denounced to Hezekiah, 
that on account of the sin which he had committed, his sons 
should be despoiled of the kingdom and carried away into 
exile.(c) 'The families of Pharaoh and Abimelech are afflicted 
on account of the injury sustained by Abraham. ({d) But when 
this is adduced as a solution of these questions, it is rather an 
evasion of it, than a proper explanation. For in this and in 
similar places the Lord threatens a punishment too great to be 
terminated by the limits of the present life. It must therefore 


(y) Jer. iii. 1, 2. Hos. ii. 2. (a) Num. xiv. 18. (c) Isaiah xxxix. 7. 
(z) Ezek. xviii. 20. (6) Jer. xxxii. 18. (d) Gen. xu.17; xx. 3. 
VOL. I. AA 


346 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1 


be understood as a declaration that the curse of the Lord nght- 
eously rests, not only on the person of an impious man, but 
also on his whole family. Where it has rested, what can be 
expected, but that the father, being destitute of the Spirit of 
God, will lead a most flagitious life ; and that the son, experi- 
encing, in consequence of the iniquity of his father, a similar 
dereliction by the Lord, will pursue the same path to perdition ; 
and that the grandson and the great grandson, the execrable 
posterity of detestable men, will run headlong after them down 
the same precipice of destruction ? 

XX. First let us inquire, whether such punishment be in- 
consistent with the Divine justice. If the whole nature of 
man be worthy of condemnation, we know that destruction 
awaits those who are not favoured by the Lord with the commu- 
nication of his grace. Nevertheless, they perish through their 
own iniquity, and not through the unjust hatred of God. Nor 
is there any room left for expostulation, why they are not as- 
sisted by Divine grace to obtain salvation as well as others. 
Since it is a punishment, therefore, inflicted on the impious 
and flagitious, in consequence of their transgressions, that 
their families remain destitute of Divine grace for many 
generations, who can bring any accusation against God for 
this most righteous instance of his vengeance? But it will 
be said, the Lord declares, on the contrary, that the pu- 
nishment of the sin of the father shall not be transferred to 
the son. Observe the subject that is treated of in that place. 
The Israelites, after they had been long harassed by numerous 
and unceasing calamities, began to use this proverb, ‘ The 
fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set 
on edge ;’’(e) by which they insinuated, that sins had been 
committed by their parents, the punishment of which was in- 
flicted on them who were otherwise righteous and innocent, 
more through the implacable wrath of God, than through a just 
severity. 'The Prophet announces to them that this is not the 
case, but that they are punished for their own transgressions, 
and that it is incompatible with the Divine justice to punish a 
righteous son for the iniquity of a wicked father. Nor is this 
to be found in the penal sanction now under consideration. 
For if the visitation, of which we are treating, be fulfilled, 
when God removes from the family of the impious his grace, 
the light of his truth, and the other means of salvation, the 
very circumstance of children blinded and abandoned by him 
being found treading in the footsteps of their fathers, is an in- 
stance of their bearing the curse in consequence of the crimes 
of their parents. But their being the subjects of temporal mise- 
"ies, and at length of eternal perdition, are punishments from 


(e) Ezek. xviii. 2. 


CHAP. Vit. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. OAT 


the righteous judgment of God, not for the sins of others, but 
on account of their own iniquity. 

X XI. On the other hand, God gives a promise to extend his 
mercy to a thousand generations; which also frequently occurs 
in the Scripture, and is inserted in the solemn covenant with 
the Church: “I will be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after 
thee.” (f) In allusion to this, Solomon says, that “the chil- 
dren of thejust man are blessed after him ;”’ (g) not only as the 
effect of a religious education, which is of no small importance, 
but also in consequence of the blessing promised in the covenant, 
that the grace of God shall perpetually remain in the families of 
the pious. ‘This is a source of peculiar consolation to the faith- 
ful, but to the impious of great terror ; for if, even after death, the 
memory of righteousness and iniquity has so much influence with 
God, that the curse of the one and the blessing of the other will 
redound to posterity, much more will it remain on the persons 
of the actors themselves. Now, it is no objection to our argu- 
ment, that the descendants of the impious sometimes grow bet- 
ter, while those of the faithful degenerate ; since the Legislator 
never intended to establish in this case‘such an invariable rule, 
as would derogate from his own free choice. For it is sufli- 
cient for the consolation of the righteous and the terror of the 
sinner, that the denunciation is not vain or ineflicacious, al- 
though it be not always executed. For as the temporal pu- 
nishments inflicted on a few wicked men are testimonies of the 
Divine wrath against sin, and of the judgment that will here- 
after be pronounced on all sinners, though many escape with 
impunity even to the end of their lives, so, when the Lord ex- 
hibits one example of this blessing, in manifesting his mercy 
and goodness to the son for the sake of his father, he affords a 
proof of his constant and perpetual favour to his worshippers ; 
aud when, in any one instance, he pursues the iniquity of the 
father in the son, he shows what a judgment awaits all the 
reprobate on account of their own transgressions; the certainty 
of which was what he principally designed in this passage. He 
also gives us a cursory intimation of the greatness of his mercy, : 
which he extends to a thousand generations, while he has as- 
signed only four generations to his vengeance. 


THE THIRD COMMANDMENT. 
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God wn vain. 


XXII. The end of this precept is, that the Lord will have 
the majesty of his name to be held inviolably sacred by us. 


(f) Gen. xvil. 7. (g) Prov. xx. 7. 


348 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1 


The substance of the command therefore is, that we ought not 
to profane that name by a contemptuous or irreverent use of it. 
This prohibition necessarily implies an injunction, that we stu- 
diously and carefully treat it with religious veneration. 'There- 
fore it becomes us to regulate our thoughts and words in such 
a manner that we may not think or speak any thing concern- 
ing God and his mysteries, but with the greatest sobriety and 
reverence; that in meditating on his works we may form no 
opinion that is dishonourable to him. 'These three things, I 
say, we ought most carefully to observe — first, that whatever 
we think, and whatever we say of him, should savour of his 
excellence, correspond to the sacred sublimity of his name, and 
tend to the exaltation of his magnificence. Secondly, we > 
should not rashly and preposterously abuse his holy word and 
adorable mysteries to the purposes of ambition, of avarice, or of 
amusement ;. but as they bear an impression of the dignity of 
his name, they should always receive from us the honour and 
esteem which belong to them. Lastly, we should not injure 
his works by obloquy or detraction, as some miserable mortals 
are accustomed to do; but whenever we mention any thing 
done by him, we should celebrate it with encomiums of wis: 
dom, justice, and goodness. This is ‘‘ sanctifying ” the name of 
God. In every other case, it is violated by a vain and crimi- 
nal abuse, because it is carried beyond the limits of that legiti- 
mate use, to which alone it is consecrated; and though no 
other consequence ensue, it is deprived of its dignity, and by 
degrees rendered contemptible. But if it be so criminal thus 
rashly and unseasonably to introduce the name of God on 
every occasion, much more so must it be to apply it to such 
nefarious uses as they do, who make it subservient to the su- 
perstitions of necromancy, to horrible imprecations, to unlawful 
exorcisms, and to other impious incantations. But an oath is 
the thing principally contemplated in the command, as the 
most detestable instance of the perverse abuse of the Divine 
name ; and this is done to inspire us with the greater horror of 
every species of profanation of it. That this precept relates to 
the worship of God and the reverence of his name, and not to 
the equity that ought to be observed among mankind, appears 
from this — that the subsequent condemnation, in the second 
table, of perjury and false witness, by which society is injured, 
would be a needless repetition, if the present precept related to 
a civil duty. . Besides, the division of the law requires this; 
for, as we have already observed, it is not in vain that God has 
distributed the law into two tables. Whence we conclude, that 
in this command he vindicates his just claims, and guards the 
sanctity of his name, but does not teach the duties which men 
owe to each other. 


CHAP. vit] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 340 


XXII. In the first place, we have to explain what an oath 
is. It consists in calling upon God asa witness, to confirm the 
truth of any declaration that we make. For execrations, which 
contain manifest reproaches against God, are not worthy to be 
mentioned among oaths. That such an attestation, when 
rightly performed, is a species of Divine worship, is evident 
from many places of Scripture ; as when Isaiah prophesies of 
the vocation of the Assyrians and Egyptians to participate in 
the covenant with Israel. ‘‘ They shall speak,” says he, “ the 
language of Canaan, and swear to the Lord of hosts.” (h) By 
“ swearing to the Lord” here is intended making a profession 
of religion. Again, when he speaks of the extension of his 
kingdom: ‘‘He who blesseth himself in the earth shall bless 
himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth 
shall swear by the God of truth.” (7) Jeremiah says, ‘‘ If they 
will diligently learn the ways of my people, to swear by my 
name, The Lord liveth; as they taught my people to swear by 
Baal, then shall they be built in the midst of my people.” (x) 
And we are justly said to profess our religion to the Lord, 
when we invoke his name to bear witness to us. For thereby 
we confess that he is truth itself, eternal and immutable ; 
whom we call not only as a witness of the truth, excelling all 
others, but also as the only defender of it, who is able to bring 
to light things which are concealed, and in a word, as the 
searcher of all hearts. For where human testimonies are 
wanting, we resort for refuge to the testimony of God; and 
particularly when any thing is to be affirmed, which is hidden 
in the conscience. For which reason the Lord is extremely 
angry with them who swear by strange gods, and interprets 
that species of swearing as a proof of manifest defection from 
him. ‘Thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them 
that are no gods.’’(2) And he declares the atrociousness of 
this crime by his denunciation of punishment: ‘I will cut off 
them that swear by the Lord, and that swear by Malcham.” (m) 

XXIV. Now, since we understand it to be the will of the 
Lord, that we should reverence his name in our oaths, we 
ought to use so much the more caution, lest, instead of reve- 
rence, they betray dishonour or contempt of it. It is no trifling 
insult to him, when perjury is committed in his name; and 
therefore the law calls it a profanation. (z.) But what remains 
to the Lord, when he is despoiled of his truth? he will then 
cease to be God. But he is certainly despoiled of it, when he 
is made an abettor and approver of a falsehood. Wherefore, 
when Joshua would induce Achan to a confession of the truth, 


(h) Isaiah xix. 18. (k) Jer. xii. 16. (m) Zeph. i. 4, 5. 
(i) . Isaiah Ixv. 16. nb) ander. v7; (x) Lev. xix. 12 


350 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 1. 


he says, ‘‘ My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of 
Israel ;”’ (0) implying in this that the Lord is grievously dis- 
honoured, if perjury be committed in his name. Nor is this 
strange ; for in such a case we do all that is in our power to 
brand his sacred name witha falsehood. And that this form of 
expression was customary among the Jews, whenever any man 
was called to take an oath, appears from a similar adjuration 
used by the Pharisees in the Gospel of John.(p) ‘To this 
caution we are accustomed by the forms of oaths which are 
used in the Scriptures: “The Lord liveth ;”’ (q) ‘God do so 
and more also to me;”’ (7) ‘‘T call God for a record upon my 
soul ;” (s) which imply, that we cannot invoke God to bea 
witness to our declarations, without imprecating his vengeance 
upon us if we be guilty of perjury. 

XXV. The name of God is rendered vile and contemptible, 
when it is used in unnecessarily swearing even to what is true; 
for in this instance also it is taken in vain. Wherefore it will 
not be sufficient to abstain from perjury ; unless we also re- 
member, that swearing is permitted and appointed, not for the 
sake of our pleasure or caprice, but from necessity ; and that 
the lawful use of it, therefore, is transgressed by those who 
apply it to cases where it is not necessary. Now, no other ne- 
cessity can be pretended, but when we want to serve either 
religion or charity. ‘This crime, in the present day, is carried 
to a very great extent; and it is so much the more intolerable, 
since by its frequency it has ceased to be considered as a 
crime, though before the Divine tribunal it is deemed no trivial 
offence. For the name of God is universally profaned without 
concern in trifling conversations; and it is not considered as 
sinful, because this presumptuous wickedness has been so long 
practised with impunity. But the Divine command remains 
valid; the sanction remains firm; and a future day will wit- 
ness the completion of that part of it which denounces a 
particular punishment against those who take his name in vain. 
This precept is violated also in another way. If in our oaths 
we substitute the servants of God in the place of God himself, 
we are guilty of manifest impiety; because we thereby 
transfer to them the glory due to the Deity. Nor is it without 
reason, that God, by a special command, enjoins us to swear by 
his name, (¢) and by a special prohibition interdicts us from 
swearing by any strange gods. (v) And the Apostle evidently 
attests the same, when he says, that ‘‘men swear by the greater, 
but that God, because he could swear by no greater, sware by 
himself.” (w) 


(0) Joshua vii. 19. (p) John ix. 24. (q) 1 Sam. xiv. 45. 
(r) 2 Kings vi. 31. (s) 2 Cor. 1.23. . 
(t) Deut. vi. 13. (v) Exod. xxiii. 13. (w) Heb..vi. 13, 16. 


CHAP. VIII] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 351 


XXVI. The Anabaptists, not satisfied with this limitation 
of oaths, condemn all oaths without exception ; because the 
prohibition of Christ is general: “I say unto you, Swear not 
at all. But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: 
for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.” (x) But by 
this mode of interpretation they set Christ in opposition to the 
Father, as though he descended into this world to abrogate the 
Father’s decrees. For in the law the eternal God not only 
permits an oath, as a lawful thing, which would be sufficient to 
justify the use of it, but in cases of necessity commands it. (y) 
Now, Christ asserts, that ‘“‘he and his Father are one,’ that 
“he acts only according to the commands of the Father,”’ that 
‘his doctrine is not of himself,” &c.(z) What then? Will 
they make God to contradict himself, by prohibiting and con- 
demning in our conduct that which he has before approved 
and enjoined? But as the words of Christ involve some diffi- 
culty, let us enter on a brief examination of them. Here we 
shall never arrive at the truth, unless we attend to the design 
of Christ, and advert to the subject of which he is there treat- 
ing. His design is not to relax or to restrict the Jaw, but to 
reduce it to its true and genuine meaning, which had been 
very much corrupted by the false comments of the scribes and 
Pharisees. If we bear this in our minds, we shall not be of 
opinion that Christ condemned all oaths, but only those which 
transgress the rule of the law. It appears to have been the 
custom of the people at that time to avoid nothing but perju- 
ries; whereas the law forbids not only perjuries, but likewise 
all vain and superfluous oaths. Our Lord, therefore, that in- 
fallible expositor of the law, apprizes them that it is sinful, not 
only to perjure themselves, but even to swear. To swear in 
what manner? In vain. But the oaths which are sanctioned 
in the law he leaves without any objection. They consider 
themselves as urging a very powerful argument, when they 
violently insist on the particle at all; which, nevertheless, re- 
fers not to the word swear, but to the forms of oaths that are 
there subjoined. For the error there condemned consisted, 
partly, in a supposition that in swearing by heaven and earth, 
there was no interference with the name of God. Therefore, 
after the principal instance of transgression, the Lord goes on 
to destroy all their subterfuges, that they may not imagine 
themselves to have escaped by suppressing the name of God, 
and calling heaven and earth to witness for them. For here, 
by the way,it must be remarked, that men indirectly swear by 
God, though his name is not expressed; as when they swear 
by the light of life, by the bread which they eat, by their 


(z) Matt. v. 34. (y) Exod.xxii./1l.. | (z) John x, 30,18; vii. 26. 


352, INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK I 


baptism, or by any other blessings which they have received 
from the Divine munificence. Nor does Christ in that place 
prohibit them from swearing by heaven, and earth, and Jeru- 
salem, in order to correct superstition, as some falsely imagine ; 
but rather to confute the sophistical subtlety of persons who 
thought there was no crime in the foolish use of indirect oatns, 
as though they were not chargeable with profaning the sacred 
name of God, which is engraven, however, on all his benefits. 
But the case is different, where any mortal man, or one that is 
dead, or an angel, is substituted in the place of God ; as, among 
idolatrous nations, adulation invented that odious form of 
swearing by the life or genius of a king; because in such 
cases the deification of a creature obscures and diminishes the 
glory of the only true God. But when we mean nothing but 
to derive a confirmation to our assertions from the sacred name 
of God, although it be done in an indirect manner, yet all such 
frivolous oaths are offensive to his majesty. Christ deprives 
this licentious practice of every vain excuse, by his prohibition. 
of swearing at all. James also aims at the same point, (a) 
where he uses the language of Christ, which I have cited ; 
because this presumption has always been prevalent in the 
world, notwithstanding it is a profanation of the name of God. 
For if you refer the particle at all to the substance of swearing, 
as though every oath, without exception, were unlawful, what 
means the explanation which is immediately annexed, “ Nei- 
ther by heaven, neither by earth,’ &c., language evidently 
used in refutation of those cavils, which the Jews considered as 
furnishing an excuse for their sin. 

XXVII. It can no longer be doubtful, therefore, to persons 
of sound judgment, that the Lord, in that passage, only con- 
demns those oaths which had been forbidden by the law. For 
even he, who exhibited in his life an example of the perfection 
which he inculcated, hesitated not to make use of oaths when- 
ever occasion required ; and his disciples, who, we doubt not, 
were obedient to their master in all things, followed the same 
example. Who can dare to assert, that Paul would have 
sworn, if all oaths had been prohibited ? But when the occa- 
sion requires it, he swears without any scruple, and sometimes 
even adds an imprecation. ‘The question, however, is not yet 
decided ; for it is the opinion of some persons, that public 
oaths are the only exceptions from this prohibition ; such as 
we take when required by a magistrate ; such also as_ princes 
are accustomed to use in ratifying treaties; or subjects, when 
they swear allegiance to their princes; or soldiers, as a military 
test; and others of a similar kind. To this class also they 


(a) James y. 12. 


* 


CHAP. VIII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 353 


justly refer those oaths which we find used by Paul in as- 
sertion of the dignity of the gospel; because the Apostles, in 
the exercise of their functions, were not private persons, but 
public ministers of God. And indeed I will not deny that 
these are the safest oaths; because they are sanctioned by the 
strongest testimonies of Scripture. A magistrate is directed, in 
a dubious case, to put a witness to his oath, and the witness, on 
the other hand, is required to answer on his oath; and the 
Apostle says, that human controversies are adjusted by this ex- 
pedient.(b) In this precept both parties are furnished with a 
complete justification of their conduct. Moreover we may 
’ observe, that among the ancient heathen a public and solemn 
oath was held; in great reverence; but that common ones, 
_which they used in their ordinary intercourse, were not es- 
teemed of any, or of much importance, because they imagined 
that these were not regarded by the Divine majesty. But it 
would be too dangerous to condemn private oaths, which are 
taken, in cases of necessity, with sobriety, integrity, and reve- 
rence, since they are supported both by reason and by scriptural 
examples. For if it be lawful for private persons in an im- 
portant and serious affair to appeal to God as a judge between 
them, much more must it be allowable to invoke him as a 
witness. Your brother will accuse you of perfidy ; you endea- 
vour to exculpate yourself; he will not permit himself by any 
means to be satisfied. If your reputation be endangered by his 
obstinate malignity, you may, without any offence, appeal to 
the judgment of God, that in his own time he will manifest 
your innocence. If the words be strictly examined, it is a less 
thing to appeal to him asa witness than as a judge. I see not, 
therefore, why we should assert such an appeal to him to be 
unlawful. There are not wanting numerous examples of it. 
If the oath of Abraham and Isaac with Abimelech be alleged 
to have been taken in a public capacity, certainly Jacob 
and Laban were private persons, and yet they confirmed the 
covenant between them by a mutual oath.(c) Boaz was a 
private person, who confirmed in the same manner his promise 
of marriage to Ruth.(d) Obadiah was a private person, a 
righteous man, and one that feared the Lord, who declared 
with an oath the fact of which he wished to convince Elijah. (e) 
I can find, therefore, no better rule, than that we regulate our 
oaths in such a manner, that they be not rash or inconsiderate, 
wanton or frivolous, but used in cases of real necessity, as for 
vindicating the glory of the Lord, or promoting the edification 
of our brother; which is the end of this commandment of 
the law. 

(b) Heb. vi. 16. (d) Ruth ni. 13. 

(c) Gen. xxi. 24; xxvi. 31; xxxi. 53. (e) 1 Kings xviii. 10. 

VOL. I. A5 


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354 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 11. 


THE FOURTH COMMANDMENT. 


. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt 
thou labour, and do all thy work ; but the seventh day is the 
sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any 
work, Sc. 


XXVIII. The end of this precept is, that, being dead to our 
own affections and works, we should meditate on the kingdom 
of God, and be exercised in that meditation in the observance 
of his institutions. But, as it has an aspect peculiar and dis- — 
tinct from the others, it requires a little different kind of expo- 
sition. ‘The fathers frequently call it a shadowy command- 
ment, because it contains the external observance of the day, 
which was abolished with the rest of the figures at the advent 
of Christ. And there is much truth in their observation; but 
it reaches only half of the subject. Wherefore it is necessary 
to seek further for an exposition, and to consider three causes, 
on which I think I have observed this commandment to rest. 
For it was the design of the heavenly Lawgiver, under the 
rest of the seventh day, to give the people of Israel a figure of 
the spiritual rest, by which the faithful ought to refrain from 
their own works, in order to leave God to work within them. 
His design was, secondly, that there should be a stated day, on 
which they might assemble together to hear the law and per- 
form the ceremonies, or at least which they might especially 
devote to meditations on his works; that by this recollection 
they might be led to the exercises of piety. Thirdly, he 
thought it right that servants, and persons living under the ju- 
risdiction of others, should be indulged with a day of rest, that 
they might enjoy some remission from their labour. 

X XIX. Yet we are taught in many places that this adum- 
bration of the spiritual rest was the principal design of the 
sabbath. For the Lord is hardly so strict in his requisitions of 
obedience to any other precept. (f) When he means to inti- 
mate, in the Prophets, that religion is totally subverted, he 
complains that his sabbaths are polluted, violated, neglected, 
and profaned ;(g') as though, in case of that duty being ne-— 
glected, there remained no other way in which he could be 
honoured. On the other hand, he notices the observance of it 
with singular encomiums. Wherefore also, among the other 
Divine communications, the faithful used very highly to esteem 
the revelation of the sabbath. For this is the language of the 
Levites in a solemn assembly, recorded by Nehemiah : “ Thou 


(f) Numb. xiii. 22. Ezek. xx. 12; xxii. 8; xxiii. 38. 
(g) Jer. xvii. 21, 22, 27. Isaiah lvi. 2. 


CHAP. VIII.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 355 


madest known unto our fathers thy holy sabbath, and com- 
mandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of 
Moses.” (A) We see the singular estimation in which it is 
held above all the commandments of the law. All these 
things tend to display the dignity of the mystery, which is 
beautifully expressed by Moses and Ezekiel. In Exodus we 
read as follows: “ Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep; for itis a 
sign between me and you throughout your generations; that 
ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye 
shall keep the sabbath therefore ; for it is holy unto yon. The 
children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath 
throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It.isa 
sign between me and the children of Israel for ever.” (¢) This 
is more fully expressed by Ezekiel; but the substance of what 
he says is, that the sabbath was a sign by which the Israelites 
might know that God was their sanctifier. (4) If our sanctifi- 
cation consists properly in the mortification of our own will, there 
is a very natural analogy between the external sign and the in- 
ternal thing which it represents. We must rest altogether, that 
God may operate within us; we must recede from our own will, 
resign our own heart, and renounce all our carnal affections; in 
short, we must cease from all the efforts of our own under- 
standing, that having God operating within us, we may enjoy 
rest in him, as we are also taught by the Apostle. (2) 

XXX. This perpetual cessation was represented to the Jews 
by the observance of one day in seven, which the Lord, in 
order that it might be the more religiously -kept, recommended 
by his own example. For it is no small stimulus to any ac- 
tion, for a man to know that he is imitating his Creator. If 
any one inquire after a hidden signification in the septenary 
number, it is probable, that because in Scripture it is the 
number of perfection, it is here selected to denote perpetual 
duration. 'This is confirmed also by the circumstance, that 
Moses, with that day in which he narrates that the Lord rested 
from his works, concludes his description of the succession of 
days and nights. We may also adduce another probable con- 
jecture respecting this number—that the Lord intended to 
signify that the sabbath would never be completed until the 
arrival of the last day. For in it we begin that blessed rest, 
in which we make new advances from day to day.. But be- 
cause we are still engaged in a perpetual warfare with the 
flesh, it will not be consummated before the completion of that 
prediction of Isaiah, ‘‘It shall come to pass, that from one new 
moon to another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all 


(h) Neh. ix. 14. (k) Ezek. xx. 12. 
(i) Exod. xxxi. 13, 14, 16, 17. (1) Heb. iv. 9. 


306 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 1. 


flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord ;” (a) that is, 
when God shall be “all in all.” (7) The Lord may be con- 
sidered, therefore, as having delineated to his people, in the 
seventh day, the future perfection of his sabbath in the last 
day, that, by a continual meditation on the sabbath during 
their whole life, they might be aspiring towards this perfection. 

XXXI. If any one disapprove of this observation on the 
number, as too curious, I object not to its being understood in 
a more simple manner; that the Lord ordained a certain day, 
that the people under the discipline of the law might be exer- 
cised in continual meditations on the. spiritual rest ; that he 
appointed the seventh day, either because he foresaw it would 
be sufficient, or in order that the proposal of a resemblance to 
his own example might operate as a stronger stimulus to the 
people, or at least to apprize them that the only end of the 
sabbath was to promote their conformity to their Creator. For 
this is of little importance, provided we retain the mystery, 
which is principally exhibited, of a perpetual rest from our 
own works. ‘To the contemplation of this, the Prophets used 
frequently to recall the Jews, that they might not suppose 
themselves to have discharged their duty merely by a cessation 
from manual labours. Beside the passages already cited, we 
have the following in Isaiah: ‘If thou turn away thy foot 
from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day ; 
and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honour- 
able; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, 
nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words ; 
then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord,” &c.(0) But all 
that it contained of a ceremonial nature was without doubt 
abolished by the advent of the Lord Christ. For he is the 
truth, at whose presence all figures disappear; the body, at 
the sight of which all the shadows are relinquished. He, 
I say, is the true fulfilment of the sabbath. Having been: 
‘“‘ buried with him by baptism, we have been planted together 
in the likeness of his death, that being partakers of his resur- 
rection, we may walk in newness of life.” (p) Therefore the 
Apostle says in another place, that ‘“‘ the sabbath was a shadow 
of things to come ; but the body is of Christ ;” (q) that is, the 
real substance of the truth, which he has beautifully explained 
in that passage. This is contained not in one day, but in the 
whole course of our life, till, being wholly dead to ourselves, 
we be filled with the life of God. Christians therefore ought 
to depart from all superstitious observance of days. 

XXXII. As the two latter causes, however, ought not to be 


(m) Isaiah Ixvi. 23. (n) 1 Cor. xv. 28. (0) Isaiah lviii. 13, 14. 
(p)*Rom. vi. 4, &c. (q) Col. ii. 16, 17. 


CHAP. VIII. |» CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 357 


numbered among the ancient shadows, but are equally suitable 
to all ages, —though the sabbath is abrogated, yet it is still 
customary among us to assemble on stated days for hearing. 
the word, for breaking the mystic bread, and for public prayers ; 
and also to allow servants and labourers a remission from their 
labour. ‘That in commanding the sabbath, the Lord had regard 
to both these things, cannot be doubted. The first is abun- 
dantly confirmed even by the practice of the Jews. The second 
is proved by Moses, in Deuteronomy, in these words: “ that 
thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest as well as 
thou. And remember that thou wast a servant in the land of 
Egypt.” (r) Also, in Exodus: “that thine ox and thine ass 
may rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may 
be refreshed.” (s) Who can deny that both these things are 
as proper for us as for the Jews? Assemblies of the Church 
are enjoined in the Divine word, and the necessity of them is 
sufficiently known even from the experience of life. Unless 
there be stated days appointed for them, how can they be held ? 
According to the direction of the Apostle, ‘‘all things” are to 
“be done decently and in order”? among us. (¢) But so far is 
it from being possible to preserve order and decorum without 
this regulation, that, if it were abolished, the Church would be 
in imminent danger of immediate convulsion and ruin. But 
if we feel the same necessity, to relieve which the Lord en- 
joined the sabbath upon the Jews, let no one plead that it does 
not belong to us. For our most provident and indulgent Fa- 
ther has been no less attentive to provide for our necessity than 
for that of the Jews. But why, it may be asked, do we not 
rather assemble on every day, that so all distinction of days 
may be removed? I sincerely wish that this were practised ; 
and truly spiritual wisdom would be well worthy of some 
portion of time being daily allotted to it; but if the infirmity 
of many persons will not admit of daily assemblies, and charity 
- does not permit us to require more of them, why should we 
not obey the rule which we have imposed upon us by the will 
of God? 

' XXXII. I am obliged to be rather more diffuse on this 
point, because, in the present age, some unquiet spirits have 
been raising noisy contentions respecting the Lord’s day. 
They complain that Christians are tinctured with Judaism, be- 
cause they retain any observance of days. But I reply, that 
the Lord’s day is not observed by us upon the principles of 
Judaism ; because in this respect the difference between us 
and the Jews is very great. For we celebrate it not with 
scrupulous rigour, as a ceremony which we conceive to be a 


(r) Deut. v. 14, 15. (s) Exod. xxiii. 12. (t) 1+Cor. xiv. 40. 


358 INSTITUTES OF THE , [Boox n, 


figure of some spiritual mystery, but only use it as a remedy 
necessary to the preservation of order in the Church. But they 
-say, Paul teaches that Christians are not to be judged in the 
observance of it, because it is a shadow of something fu- 
ture.(v) Therefore he is “ afraid lest”? he has ‘‘ bestowed ”’ on 
the Galatians “labour in vain,’’ because they continued to ‘ ob- 
serve days.” (w) And in the Epistle to the Romans, he as- 
serts him to be “ weak in the faith,” who “ esteemeth one day 
above another.” (x) But who, these furious zealots only ex- 
cepted, does not see what observance the apostle intends? For 
they did not observe them for the sake, of political and ecclesi- 
astical order; but when they retained them as shadows of spi- 
ritual things, they were so far guilty of obscuring the glory of — 
Christ and the light of the gospel. They did not, therefore, rest 
from their manual labours, as from employments which would 
divert them from sacred studies and meditations; but from a 
principle of superstition, imagining their cessation from labour 
to be still an expression of reverence for the mysteries formerly 
represented by it. ‘This preposterous distinction of days the 
Apostle strenuously opposes ; and not that legitimate difference 
which promotes the peace of the Christian Church. For in the 
churches which he founded, the sabbath was retained for this 
purpose. He prescribes the same day to the Corinthians, for 
making collections for the relief of the brethren at Jerusalem. 
If superstition be an object of fear, there was more danger in 
the holy days of the Jews, than in the Lord’s days now observed — 
by Christians. Now, whereas it was expedient for the destruc- 
tion of superstition, the day which the Jews kept holy was abo- 
lished ; and it being necessary for the preservation of decorum, 
order, and peace, in the Christian Church, another day was ap- 
pointed for the same use. 

XXXIV. However, the ancients have not without sufficient 
reason substituted what we call the Lord’s day in the room of — 
the sabbath. For since the resurrection of the Lord is the end 
and consummation of that true rest, which was adumbrated by 
the ancient sabbath, the same day which put an end to the 
shadows, admonishes Christians not to adhere to a shadowy 
ceremony. Yet I do not lay so much stress on the septenary 
number, that I would oblige the Church to an invariable ad- 
herence to it; nor will I condemn those churches which have 
other solemn days for their assemblies, provided they keep at a 
distance from superstition. And this will be the case, if they’ 
be only designed for the observance of discipline and well-regu- 
lated order. Let us sum up the whole in the following man- 
ner: As the truth was delivered to the Jews under a figure, so 


(v) Col. ii. 16, 17. (w) Gal. iv. 10, 11. (x) Rom. xiv. 5. 


cuaP. vitl.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 359 


it is given to us without any shadows; first, in order that 
during our whole life we should meditate on a perpetual rest 
from our own works, that the Lord may operate within us by 
his Spirit ; secondly, that every man, whenever he has leisure, 
should diligently exercise himself in private in pious reflections 
on the works of God, and also that we should at the same time 
observe the legitimate order of the Church, appointed for the 
hearing of the word, for the administration of the sacraments, 
and for public prayer; thirdly, that we should not unkindly 
oppress those who are subject to us. Thus vanish all the 
dreams of false prophets, who in past ages have infected the 
people with a Jewish notion, affirming that nothing but the 
ceremonial part of this commandment, which, according to them, 
is the appointment of the seventh day, has been abrogated, but 
that the moral part of it, that is, the observance of one day in 
seven, stillremains. But this is only changing the day in con- 
tempt of the Jews, while they retain the same opinion of the holi- 
ness of a day ; for on this principle the same mysterious significa- 
tion would still be attributed to particular days, which they 
formerly obtained among the Jews. And indeed we see what 
advantages have arisen from such a sentiment. For those who 
adhere to it, far exceed the Jews in a gross, carnal, and supersti- 
tious observance of the sabbath; so that the reproofs, which 
we find in Isaiah, are equally applicable to them in the present 
age, as to those whom the Prophet reproved in his time. But 
the principal thing to be remembered is the general doctrine; 
that, lest religion decay or languish among us, sacred assem- 
blies ought diligently to be held, and that we ought to use 
those external means which are adapted to support the worship 
of God. 


THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT. 


Honour thy father and thy mother ; that thy days may be long 
upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. 


XXXV. The end of this precept is, that since the Lord 
God desires the preservation of the order he has appointed, the 
degrees of preéminence fixed by him ought to be inviolably 
preserved. The sum of it, therefore, will be, that we should 
reverence them whom God has exalted to any authority over 
us, and should render them honour, obedience, and gratitude. 
Whence follows a prohibition to derogate from their dignity by 
contempt, obstinacy, or ingratitude. For in the Scripture the 
word ‘‘ honour” has an extensive signification ; as, when the 
Apostle directs that ‘‘the elders who rule well be counted 
worthy of double honour,’ (y) he means not only that they 


(y) 1 Tim. v. 17, 


360 INSTITUTES OF THE _ [Boox m. 


are entitled to reverence, but likewise such a remuneration as 
their ministry deserves. But as this precept, which enjoins 
subjection to superiors, is exceedingly repugnant to the depra- 
vity of human nature, whose ardent desire of exaltation will 
scarcely admit of subjection, it has therefore proposed as an ex- 
ample that kind of superiority which is naturally most amiable 
and least invidious ; because that might the more easily mollify 
and incline our minds to a habit of submission. By that sub- 
jection, therefore, which is most easy to be borne, the Lord 
accustoms us by degrees to every kind of legitimate obedience ; 
because the reason of all is the same. For to those, to whom 
he gives any preeminence, he cormmunicates his own authority, 
as far as is necessary for the preservation of that preéminence. 
The titles of Father, God, and Lord, are so eminently appli- 
cable to him, that, whenever we hear either of them mentioned, 
our minds cannot but be strongly affected with a sense of his 
majesty. Those, therefore, on whom he bestows these titles, 
he illuminates with a ray of his splendour, to render them all 
honourable in their respective stations. Thus in a father we 
ought to recognize something Divine ; for it is not without rea- 
son that he bears one of the titles of the Deity. Our prince, 
or our lord, enjoys an honour somewhat similar to that which 
is given to God. 

XXXVI. Wherefore it ought not to be doubted that God 
here lays down a universal rule for our conduct; namely, that 
to every one, whom we know to be placed in authority over 
us by his appointment, we should render reverence, obedience, 
gratitude, and all the other services in our power. Nor does it 
make any difference, whether they are worthy of this honour, 
or not. For whatever be their characters, yet it is not without 
the appointment of the Divine providence, that they have 
attained that station, on account of which the supreme Legisla- 
tor has commanded them to be honoured. He has particularly 
enjoined reverence to our parents, who have brought us into 
this life; which nature itself ought to teach us. For those 
who violate the parental authority by contempt or rebellion, 
are not men, but monsters. ‘Therefore the Lord commands all 
those, who are disobedient to their parents, to be put to death, 
as having rendered themselves unworthy to enjoy the light, by 
their disregard of those by whose means they were introduced 
to it. And various appendices to the law evince the truth of 
our observation, that the honour here intended consists in 
reverence, obedience, and gratitude. The first the Lord con- 
firms, when he commands him to be slain who has cursed his 
father or mother ;(z) for in that case he punishes contempt. 
He confirms the second, when he denounces the punishment 


(z) Exod. xx1. 17. 


CHAP. Vill. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 361 


of death against disobedient and rebellious children. (@) The 
third is supported by Christ, who says, ‘‘God commanded, 
saying, Honour thy father and mother;” and, ‘ He that 
curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, 
‘Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by 
whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; and honour not 
his father or his mother, he shall be free. ‘Thus have ye made 
the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.” (bd) 
And whenever Paul mentions this commandment, he explains 
it as a requisition of obedience. (c) 

XXXVII. In order to recommend it, a promise is annexed, 
which is a further intimation how acceptable to God that sub- 
mission is which. is here enjoined. Paul employs that stimu- 
lus to arouse our inattention, when he says, ‘‘ This is the first 
commandment with promise.” [or the preceding promise, in 
the first table, was not particularly confined to one command- 
ment, but extended to the whole law. Now, the true explana- 
tion of this promise is, that the Lord spake particularly to the 
Israelites concerning the land which he had promised them as 
an inheritance. If the possession of that land therefore was a 
pledge of the Divine goodness, we need not wonder, if it was 
the Lord’s will to manifest his favour by bestowing length of 
life, in order to prolong the enjoyment of the blessing con- 
ferred by him. ‘The meaning of it therefore is, Honour thy 
father and thy mother, that through the space of a long life 
thou mayest enjoy the possession of the land, which will be to 
thee a testimony of my favour. But, as the whole earth is 
blessed to the faithful, we justly place the present life among 
the blessings we receive from God. Wherefore this promise 
belongs likewise to us, inasmuch as the continuance of the 
present life affords us a proof of the Divine benevolence. For 
neither is it promised to us, nor was it promised to the Jews, 
as though it contained any blessedness in itself; but because 
to the pious it is generally a token of the Divine favour. 
Therefore, if a son, that is obedient to his parents, happen to be 
removed out of life before the age of maturity, — which is a case 
of frequent occurrence, — the Lord, nevertheless, perseveres with 
as much punctuality in the completion of his promise, as if he 
were to reward a person with a hundred acres of land to whom 
he had only promised one. 'The whole consists in this: We 
should consider that long life is promised to us so far as it is 
the blessing of God; but that it is a blessing, only as it isa 
proof of the favour of God, which he infinitely more richly 
and substantially testifies and actually demonstrates to his 
servants in their death. 


(a) Deut. xxi. 18—21. (b) Matt. xv. 4—6. (c) Eph. vi. 1. Col. iii. 20. 
VOL. I. 46 . 


' 862 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book um. 


XX XVIII. Moreover, when the Lord promises the blessing 
of the present life to those children who honour their parents 
with proper reverence, he at the same time implies that a cer- 
tain curse impends over all those who are disobedient and 
perverse. And that it might not fail of being executed, he 
pronounces them in his law to be liable to the sentence of 
death, and commands that punishment to be inflicted on them. 
If they escape that, he punishes them himself in some other 
way. For we see what great numbers of persons of this cha- 
racter fall in battles and in private quarrels; others are affilict- 
ed in unusual ways; and almost all of them are proofs of the 
truth of this threatening. But if any arrive at an extreme age, 
being deprived of the Divine blessing, they only languish in 
misery in this life, and are reserved to greater punishments here- 
after ; and consequently they are far from participating in the 
blessing promised to dutiful children. But it must be remarked 
by the way, that we are commanded to obey them only ‘ir. 
the Lord;” and this is evident from the foundation before 
laid; for they preside in that station to which the Lord has 
exalted them by communicating to them a portion of his 
honour. Wherefore the submission exercised towards them 
ought to be a step towards honouring the Supreme Father. 
‘Therefore, if they instigate us to any transgression of the law, 
Wwe may justly consider them not as parents, but as strangers, 
who attempt to seduce us from obedience to our real Father. 
The same observation is applicable to princes, lords, and superiors 
of every description. For it is infamous and absurd, that their 
eminence should avail to depreciate the preeminence of God, 
upon which it depends, and to which it ought to conduct us. 


THE SIXTH COMMANDMENT. 


Thou shalt not kill. 


XX XIX. The end of this precept is, that since God has 
connected mankind together in a kind of unity, every man 
ought to consider himself as charged with the safety of all. 
In short, then, all violence and injustice, and every kind of 
mischief, which may injure the body of our neighbour, are 
forbidden to us. And therefore we are enjoined, if it be in our 
power, to assist in protecting the lives of our neighbours; to 
exert ourselves with fidelity for this purpose ; to procure those 
things which conduce to their tranquillity ; to be vigilant ir 
shielding them from injuries; and in cases of danger to afford 
them our assistance. If we remember that this is the language 
of the Divine Legislator, we should consider, at the same time, 
‘hat he intends this rule to govern the soul. For it were 


CHAP. VIII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 363. ~ 


ridiculous, that he who beholds the thoughts of the heart, .and 
principally insists on them, should content himself with forming 
only the body to true righteousness. Mental homicide, therefore, 
is likewise prohibited, and an internal disposition to preserve 
the life of our brother is commanded in this law. ‘The hand, 
indeed, accomplishes the homicide, but it is conceived by the 
mind under the influence of anger and hatred. -Examine 
whether you can be angry with your brother, without being 
inflamed with a desire of doing him some injury. If you 
cannot be angry with him, then you cannot hate him; for 
hatred is nothing more ‘than inveterate anger. However you 
may dissemble, and endeavour to extricate yourself by vain 
subterfuges, whenever there is either anger or hatred, there is 
also a disposition to do injury. If you persist in your evasions, 
it is already pronounced by the Holy Spirit, that ‘‘ Whosoever 
hateth his brother is a murderer.’ (d) It is declared by the 
Lord Christ, “‘ that whosoever is angry with his brother with- 
out a cause shall be in danger of the judgment ; and whosoever 
shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the coun- 
cil; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of 
hell fire.’’ (e) 

XL. Now, the Scripture states two reasons on whtich this 
precept is founded ; the first, that man is the image of God; 
the second, that he is our own flesh. Wherefore, unless we 
would violate the image of God, we ought to hold the personal 
safety of our neighbour inviolably sacred ; and unless we would 
divest ourselves of humanity, we ought to cherish him as our 
own flesh. The motives which are derived from the redemp- 
tion and grace of Christ will be treated in another place. 
These two characters, which are inseparable from the nature 
of man, God requires us to consider as motives to our exertions 
for his security ; so that we may reverence his image impressed 
on him, and show an affectionate regard for our own flesh. 
That person, therefore, is not innocent of the crime of murder, 
who has merely restrained himself from the effusion of blood. 
If you perpetrate, if you attempt, if you only conceive in you 
mind any thing inimical to the safety of another, you stand 
guilty of murder. Unless you also endeavour to defend him to 
the utmost of your ability and opportunity, you are guilty of 
the same inhuman transgression of the law. But if so much 
concern be discovered for the safety of the body, we may con- 
clude, how much care and attention should be devoted to the 
safety of the soul, which, in the sight of God, is of infinitely 
superior value. 


(d) 1 John iii. 15. (e) Matt. v. 22. 


364 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 1 


THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT. 7 


Thou shalt not commit adultery. 


XLI. The end of this precept is, that because God loves 
chastity and purity, we ought to depart from all uncleanness. 
The sum of it therefore is, that we ought not to be polluted by 
any carnal impurity, or ibidinous intemperance. ‘T’o this pro- 
nibition corresponds the affirmative injunction, that every part 
of our lives ought to be regulated by chastity and continence. 
But he expressly forbids adultery, to which all incontinence 
tends ; in order that by the turpitude of that which is very 
gross and palpable, being an infamous pollution of the body, 
he may lead us to abominate every unlawful passion. Since 
man was created in such a state as not to live a solitary life, 
but to be united to a help-meet ; and moreover since the curse 
of sin has increased this necessity, — the Lord has afforded us 
ample assistance in this case by the institution of marriage —a 
connection which he has not only originated by his authority, 
but also sanctified by his blessing. Whence it appears, that 
every other union, but that of marriage, is cursed in his sight ; 
and that the conjugal union itself is appointed as a remedy for 
our necessity, that we may not break out into unrestrained 
licentiousness. Let us not flatter ourselves, therefore, since 
we hear that there can be no cohabitation of male and female, 
except in marriage, without the curse of God. 

XLII. Now, since the original constitution of human nature, 
and the violence of the passions consequent upon the fall, have 
rendered a union of the sexes doubly necessary, except to those 
whom God has exempted from that necessity by peculiar 
grace, let every one carefully examine what is given to him. 
Virginity, I acknowledge, is a virtue not to be despised. But 
as this is denied to some, and to others is granted only for a sea- 
son, let those who are troubled with incontinence, and cannot 
succeed in resisting it, avail thems lves of the help of marriage, 
that they may preserve their chastity according to the degree 
of their calling. For persons who “cannot receive this say- 
ing,’ (f) if they do not assist their frailty by the remedy of- 
fered and granted to them, oppose God and resist his ordinance. 
Here let no one object, as many do in the present day, that 
with the help of God he can do all things. For the assistance 
of God is granted only to them who walk in his ways, that is, 
in their calling ; which is deserted by all those who neglect 
the means which God has afforded them, and strive to over- 


(f) Matt. xix. 11. 


CHAP. vil. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. | 365 


come their necessities by vain presumption. ‘That continence 
is a peculiar gift of God, and of that kind which is not imparted 
promiscuously, or to the whole body of the Church, but only 
conferred on a few of its members, is affirmed by our Lord. 
For he mentions a certain class of men who “ have made them- 
selves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake ; ”’ (g’) that is, 
that they might be more at liberty to devote their atten- 
tion to the affairs of the kingdom of heaven. But that no one 
might suppose this to be in the power of man, he had already 
declared that ‘‘all men cannot receive this saying, save they to 
‘whom it is given.” And he concludes, “‘ He that is able to re- 
ceive it, let him receive it.”’ Paul is still more explicit, when 
he says, that ‘‘ every man hath his proper gift of God, one after 
this manner, and another after that.” (h) 

XLII. Since we are so expressly apprized that it 1s not in 
the power of every one to preserve chastity in celibacy, even 
with the most strenuous efforts for that purpose, and that it is 
a peculiar grace, which the Lord confers only on particular 
persons, that he may have them more ready for his service, 
do we not resist God, and strive against the nature insti- 
tuted by him, unless we accommodate our manner of life to 
the measure of our ability? In this commandment the Lord 
prohibits adultery: therefore he requires of us purity and chas- 
tity The only way of preserving this is, that every one 
sheuld measure himself by his own capacity. Let no one 
rashly despise marriage as a thing useless or unnecessary to 
him; let no one prefer celibacy, unless he can dispense with 
a wife. And in that state let him not consult his carnal 
tranquillity or advantage, but only that, being exempted from 
this restraint, he may be the more prompt and ready for all the 
duties of -piety. Moreover, as this benefit is conferred upon 
many persons only for a season, let every one refrain from 
marriage as long as he shall be capable of supporting a life of 
celibacy. When his strength fails to overcome his passions, 
let him consider that the Lord has laid him under a necessity 
of marrying. 'Thisis evident from the direction of the Apostle 
“To avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and 
let every woman have her own husband.” Again: “If they 
cannot contain, let them marry.” (7) Here, in the first place, 
he signifies that the majority of men are subject to the vice of 
incontinence ; in the next place, of those who are subject to it, 
he makes no exception, but enjoins them all to have recourse 
to that sole remedy which obviates unchastity. Those who 
_ are incontinent, therefore, if they neglect this method of curing 

their infirmity, are guilty of ‘n, in not obeying this injunction 
of the Apostle. And let not him who refrains from actual for- 


(g) Matt. xix. 12. (h) 1 Cor. vii. 7. (i) 1 Cor. vii. 2, 9. 


366 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 1, 


nication, flatter himself, as though he could not be charged 
with unchastity, while his heart at the same time is inflamed 
with libidinous desire. For Paul defines chastity to consist 
in sanctity of mind connected with purity of body. ‘The 
unmarried woman,” he says, ‘‘careth for the things of the 
Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit.” (4) 
Therefore, when he gives a reason to confirm the preceding in- 
junction, he does not content himself with saying that it is 
better for a man to marry than to pollute himself with the so- 
ciety of a harlot, but affirms that “it is better to marry than to 
burn.” (2) 

XLIV. Now, if married persons are satisfied that their so- 
ciety is attended with the blessing of the Lord, they are there- 
by admonished that it must not be contaminated by hbidinous 
and dissolute intemperance. For if the honour of marriage 
conceals the shame of incontinence, it ought not on that ac- 
count to be made an incitement to it. Wherefore let it not be 
supposed by married persons that all things are lawful to them. 
Every man should observe sobriety towards his wife, and every 
wife, reciprocally, towards her husband ; conducting themselves 
in such a manner as to do nothing unbecoming the decorum 
and temperance of marriage. For thus ought marriage con- 
tracted in the Lord to be regulated by moderation and modesty, 
and not to break out into the vilest lasciviousness. Such sen- 
suality has been stigmatized by Ambrose with a severe, but not 
unmerited censure, when he calls those who in their conjugal 
intercourse have no regard to modesty or decorum, the adul- 
terers of their own wives. Lastly, let us consider who the Le- 
sislator is, by whom adultery is here condemned. It is no other 
than he who ought to have the entire possession of us, and 
justly requires the whole of our spirit, soul, and body. . There- 
fore, when he prohibits us from committing adultery, he at the 
same time forbids us, either by lasciviously ornamenting our 
persons, or by obscene gesticulations, or by impure expressions, 
insidiously to attack the chastity of others. For there is much 
reason in the address of Archelaus to a young man clothed in 
an immoderately effeminate and delicate manner, that it was 
~ immaterial in what part he was immodest, with respect to God, 
‘who abominates all contamination, in whatever part it may dis- 

cover itself, either of soul or of body. And that there may be 
no doubt on the subject, let us remember that God here recom- 
mends chastity. If the Lord requires chastity of us, he con- 
demns every thing contrary to it. Wherefore, if we aspire to 
ybedience, neither let our mind internally burn with depraved |. 
‘oneupiscence, nor let our eyes wanton into corrupt affections — 


(k) 1 Cor. vii. 34. (2) 1 Cor. vii. 9. 


CHAP. VIII.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 367 © 


nor let our body be adorned for purposes of seduction, nor let 
our tongue with impure speeches allure our mind to similar 
thoughts, nor let us inflame ourselves with intemperance. 
For all these vices are stains, by which the purity of chastity 
-s defiled. 


THE EIGHTH COMMANDMENT. 


Thou shalt not steal. 


XLV. The end of this precept is, that, as injustice is an 
abomination to God, every man may possess what belongs to 
him. ‘The sum of it, then, is, that we are forbidden to covet 
the property of others, and are therefore enjoined faithfully to 
use our endeavours to preserve to every man what justly belongs 
to him. For we ought to consider, that what a man possesses 
has fallen to his lot, not by a fortuitous contingency, but by 
the distribution of the supreme Lord of all ; and that therefore 
no man can be deprived of his possessions by criminal methods, 
Without an injury being done to the Divine dispenser of them. 
But the species of theft are numerous. One consists in vio- 
lence; when the property of any person is plundered by force 
and predatory license. Another consists in malicious impos- 
ture ; when it is taken away in a fraudulent manner. Another 
consists in more secret cunning ; where any one is deprived of 
his property under the mask of justice. Another consists in 
flatteries ; where we are cheated under the pretence of a dona- 
tion. But not to dwell too long on the recital of the different 
species of theft, let us remember that all artifices by which the 
possessions and wealth of our neighbours are transferred to us, 
whenever they deviate from sincere love into a desire of de- 
ceiving, or doing any kind of injury, are to be esteemed acts 
of theft. This is the only view in which God considers them, 
even though the property may be gained by a suit at law. 
For he sees the tedious manceuvres with which the designing 
man begins to decoy his more simple neighbour, till at length 
he entangles him in his snares. He sees the cruel and inhuman 
laws, by which the more powerful man oppresses and ruins 
him that is weaker. He sees the baits with which the more 
crafty trepan the imprudent. All which things are concealed 
from the judgment of man, nor ever come to his knowledge. 
And this kind of injury relates not only to money, or to goods, 
or to lands, but to whatever each individual is justly entitled 
to; for we defraud our neighbours of their property, if we 
deny them those kind offices, which it is our duty to perform 
to them. If an idle agent or steward devour the substance of 
his master, and be inattentive to the care of his domestic af- 


iy 


\ 


368 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book «1. 


fairs; if he either improperly waste, or squander with a lux- 
urious profusion, the property intrusted to him; if a servant 
deride his master, if he divulge his secrets, if by any means he 
betray either his life or his property ; and if, on the other hand, 
a master inhumanly oppress his family, — God holds him guilty 
of theft. For the property of others is withheld and misap- 
pled by him, who does not perform towards them those of- 
fices which the duty of his situation requires of him. 

XLVI. We shall rightly obey this commandment therefore, 
if, contented with our own lot, we seek no gain but in an 
honest and lawful way; if we neither desire to enrich our- 
selves by injustice, nor attempt to ruin the fortune of our neigh- 
bour, in order to increase our own; if we donot labour to accu- 
mulate wealth by cruelty, and at the expense of the blood of 
others; if we do not greedily scrape together from every quar- 
ter, regardless of right or wrong, whatever may conduce to 
satiate our avarice or support our prodigality. On the contrary, 
it should be our constant aim, as far as possible, faithfully to 
assist all by our advice and our property in preserving what 
belongs to them; but if we are concerned with perfidious and 
fallacious men, let us be prepared rather to recede a little from 
our just right than to contend with them. Moreover, let us 
communicate to the necessities, and according to our ability 
alleviate the poverty, of those whom we perceive to be pressed 
by any embarrassment of their circumstances. Lastly, let 
every man examine what obligations his duty lays him under 


to others, and let him faithfully discharge the duties which he — 


owes them. For this reason the people should honour their 
governors, patiently submit to their authority, obey their laws 
and mandates, and resist nothing, to which they can submit 
consistently with the Divine will. On the other hand, let 
governors take care of their people, preserve the public peace, 


protect the good, punish the wicked, and administer all things — 


in such a manner, as becomes those who must render an 
account of their office to God the supreme Judge. -Let the 
ministers of churches faithfully devote themselves to the mi- 
nistry of the word, and let them never adulterate the doctrine 
of salvation, but deliver it pure and uncontaminated to the 
people of God. Let them teach, not only by their doctrine, but 
by the example of their lives; in a word, let them preside as 
good shepherds over the sheep. Let the people, on their part, 
receive them as the messengers and apostles of God, render to 
them that honour to which the supreme Master has exalted 


them, and furnish them with the necessaries of life. Let” 


parents undertake the support, government, and instruction of 
their children, as committed by’ God to their care; nor let 


them exasperate their minds and alienate their affections from | 


CHAP. vill. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. — 369 


them by cruelty, but cherish and embrace them with the lenity 
and indulgence becoming their character. And that obedience 
is due to them from their children has been before observed. 
Let juniors revere old age, since the Lord has designed that 
age to be honourable. Let old men, by their prudence and 
superior experience, guide the imbecility of youth ; not teasing 
them with sharp and clamorous invectives, but tempering se- 
verity with mildness and affability. Let servants show them- 
selves obedient and diligent in the service of their masters ; 
and that not only in appearance, but from the heart, as serving 
God himself. Neither let masters behave morosely and _per- 
versely to their servants, harassing them with excessive aspe- 
rity, or treating them with contempt; but rather acknowledge 
them as their brethren and companions in the service of the 
heavenly Master, entitled to be regarded with mutual affection, 
and to receive kind treatment. In this manner, I say, let 
every man consider what duties he owes to his neighbours, ac- 
cording to the relations he sustains; and those duties let him 
discharge. Moreover, our attention should always be directed 
to the Legislator ; to remind us that this law is ordained for 
our hearts as much as for our hands, in order that men may 
_ study both to protect the property and to promote the interests 
of others. 


THE NINTH COMMANDMENT. 


Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. 


XLVII. The end of this precept is, that because God, who 
is truth itself, execrates a lie, we ought to preserve the truth 
without the least disguise. 'The sum of it therefore is, that we 
neither violate the character of any man, either by calumnies 
or by false accusations, nor distress him in his property by 
falsehood, nor injure him by detraction or impertinence. This 
prohibition is connected with an injunction to do all the service 
we can to every man, by affirming the truth for the protection 
of his reputation and his property. The Lord seems to have in- 
tended the following words as an exposition of this command: 
‘Thou shalt not raise a false report: put not thine hand with 
the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.” Again: “ Keep 
thee far from a false matter.’’?(m) In another place also he 
not only forbids us to practise backbiting and _ tale-bearing 
among the people, but prohibits every man from deceiving his 
brother ; (7) for he cautions us against both in distinct com- 
mandments. Indeed there is no doubt but that, as, in the 
preceding precepts, he has prohibited cruelty, impurity, and 


(m) Exod. xxiii. 1, 7. ‘) Lev. xix. 16. 
VOL. 1, AT 


370 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK It. 


avarice, so in this he forbids falsehood ; of which there are two 
branches, as we have before observed. For either we trans- 
gress against the reputation of our neighbours by malignity and 
perverse detraction, or by falsehood and sometimes by obloquy 
we injure their interests. It is immaterial whether we sup- 
pose the testimony here designed to be solemn and judicial, or 
a common one, which is delivered in private conversations. 
For we must always recur to this maxim —that, of each of the 
separate kinds of vices, one species is proposed as an example, 
to which the rest may be referred ; and that, in general, the 
species selected is that in which the turpitude of the vice is 
most conspicuous. It is proper, however, to extend it more 
generally to calumnies and detraction, by which our neigh- 
bours are unjustly harassed ; because falsehood in a forensic 
testimony is always attended with perjury. But perjury, being 
a profanation and violation of the name of God, has already 
been sufficiently condemned in the third commandment. Where- 
fore the legitimate observance of this precept is, that our tongue, 
by asserting the truth, ought to serve both the reputation and 
the profit of our neighbours. The equity of this is self-evident. 
For if a good name be more precious than any treasures what- 
ever, a man sustains as great an injury when he is deprived of 
the integrity of his character, as when he is despoiled of his 
wealth. And in plundering his substance, there is sometimes 
as much effected by false testimony, as by the hands of vi- 
olence. | 

_ XLVITI. Nevertheless, it is wonderful with what supine 
security this precept is generally transgressed, so that few per- 
sons can be found, who are not notoriously subject to this 
malady ; we are so fascinated with the malignant pleasure of 
examining and detecting the faults of others. Nor should we 
suppose it to be a sufficient excuse, that in many cases we can- 
not be charged with falsehood. For he who forbids the cha- 
racter of our brother to be bespattered with falsehood, wills 
also that as far as the truth will permit, it be preserved im- 
maculate. For although he only guards it against falsehood, 
he thereby suggests that it 1s committed to his charge. But 
this should be sufficient to induce us to defend the fair cha- 
racter of our neighbour—that God concerns himself in its 
protection. Wherefore detraction is, without doubt, universal- 
ly condemned. Now, by detraction we mean, not reproof, 
which is given from a motive of correction ; not accusation or 
judicial denunciation, by which recompense is demanded for 
an injury; not public reprehension, which tends to strike ter- 
ror into other offenders ; not a discovery to them whose safety 
depends on their being previously warned, that they may not 
he endangered through ignorance; but odious crimination, 


CHAP. VIII. | ‘CHRISTIAN RELIGION. | Ort 


which arises from malice, and a violent propensity to detraction. 
This commandment also extends so far as to forbid us to affect 
a pleasantry tinctured with scurrilous and bitter sarcasms, se- 
verely lashing the faults of others under the appearance of sport ; 
which is the practice of some who aim at the praise of raillery, 
to the prejudice of the modesty and feelings of others; for 
such wantonness sometimes fixes a lasting stigma on the cha- 
racters of our brethren. Now, if we turn our eyes to the Le- 
gislator whose proper right it is to rule our ears and our minds, 
as much as our tongues, it will certainly appear that an avidity 
of hearing detraction, and an unreasonable propensity to unfa- 
vourable opinions respecting others, are equally prohibited. 
For it would be ridiculous for any one to suppose that God 
hates slander in the tongue, and does not reprobate malice in 
the heart. Wherefore, if we possess the true fear and love of 
God, let us make it our study, that as far as is practicable and 
expedient, and consistent with charity, we devote neither our 
tongues nor our ears to opprobrious and malicious raillery, nor 
inadvertently attend to unfavourable suspicions ; but that, put- 
ting fair constructions on every man’s words and actions, we 
regulate our hearts, our ears, and our tongues, with a view to 
preserve the reputation of all around us. 


THE TENTH COMMANDMENT. 


Thow shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet 
thy neighbour's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid- 
servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy 
neighbour’s. 


XLIX. The end of this precept is, that, since it is the will 
o. God that our whole soul should be under the influence of 
love, every desire inconsistent with charity ought to be ex- 
peled from our minds. ‘The sum, then, will be, that no thought 
should obtrude itself upon us, which would excite in our 
minds any. desire that is noxious, and tends to the detriment 
of another. ‘To which corresponds the affirmative precept, 
that all our conceptions, deliberations, resolutions, and underta- 
kings, ought to be consistent with the benefit and advantage of 
our neighbours. But here we meet with what appears to be 
a great and perplexing difficulty. For if our previous assertions 
be true, that the terms adultery and theft comprehend the licen- 
tious desire, and the injurious and criminal intention, this may 
be thought to have superseded the necessity of a separate com- 
mand being afterwards introduced, forbidding us to covet the 
possessions of others. But we shall easily solve this difficulty 
by a distinction between intention and concupiscence. For an 


372 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK 11 


intention, as we have before observed in explaining the former 
commandments, is a deliberate consent of the will, when the 
mind has been enslaved by any unlawful desire. Concupis- 
cence may exist without such deliberation or consent, when 
the mind is only attracted and stimulated by vain and corrupt 
objects. As the Lord, therefore, has hitherto commanded our 
wills, efforts, and actions to be subject to the law of love, so 
now he directs that the conceptions of our minds be subject to 
the same regulation, lest any of them be corrupt and perverted, 
and give our hearts an improper impulse. As he has forbidden 
our minds to be inclined and persuaded to anger, hatred, 
adultery, rapine, and falsehood, so now he prohibits them from 
being instigated to these vices. 

L. Nor is it without cause that he requires such consummate 
rectitude. For who can deny that it is reasonable for all the 
powers of our souls to be under the influence of love? But if 
any one deviate from the path of love, who can deny that that 
soul is in an unhealthy state? Now, whence is it, that your 
mind conceives desires prejudicial to your neighbour, but that, 
neglecting his interest, you consult nothing but yourown? For 
if your heart were full of love, there would be no part of it 
exposed to such imaginations. It must therefore be destitute 
of love, so far as it is the seat of concupiscence. Some one 
will object, that it is unreasonable, that imaginations, which 
without reflection flutter about in the mind, and then vanish 
away, should be condemned as symptoms of concupiscence, 
which has its seat in the heart. I reply, that the present ques- 
tion relates to that kind of imaginations, which, when they are 
presented to our understandings, at the same time strike our 
hearts, and inflame them with cupidity ; since the mind never 
entertains a wish for any thing after which the heart is not ex- 
cited to pant. Therefore God enjoins a wonderful ardour of 
love, which he will not allow to be interrupted even by the 
smallest degree of concupiscence. He requires a heart admi- 
rably well regulated, which he permits not to be disturbed 
with the least emotion contrary to the law of love. Do not 
imagine that this doctrine is unsupported by any great au- 
thority ; for I derived the first idea of it from Augustine. 
Now, though the design of the Lord was to prohibit us from all 
corrupt desires, yet he has exhibited, as examples, those ob- 
jects which most generally deceive us with a fallacious ap- 
pearance of pleasure; that he might not leave any thing to 
concupiscence, after having driven it from those objects towards 
‘vhich it is most violently inclined. Behold, then, the second 
table of the law, which sufficiently instructs us in the duties 
we owe to men for the sake of God, on regard to whom 
the whole rule of love depends. The duties taught in this 


CHAP. VII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 373 


second table, therefore, we shall inculcate in vain, unless our in- 
struction be founded on the fear and reverence of God. T'o 
divide the prohibition of concupiscence into two precepts, the 
discerning reader, without any comment of mine, will pro- 
nounce to be a corrupt and violent separation of what is but 
one. Nor is the repetition of this phrase, ‘Thou shalt not 
covet,” any objection against us; because, having mentioned 
the house or family, God enumerates the different parts of it, 
beginning with the wife. Hence it clearly appears that it 
ought to be read, as it is correctly read by the Hebrews, in one 
continued connection; and in short, that God commands, that 
all that every man possesses remain safe and entire, not only 
from any actual injury or fraudulent intention, but even from 
the least emotion of cupidity that can solicit our hearts. 

LI. But what is the tendency of tle whole law, will not 
now be difficult to judge: it is to a perfection of righteousness, 
that it may form the life of man after the example of the Di- 
vine purity. For God has so delineated his own character in 
it, that the man who exemplifies in his actions the precepts it 
contains, will exhibit in his life, as it were, an image of God. 
Wherefore, when Moses would recall the substance of it to the 
remembrance of the Israelites, he said, ‘‘ And now, Israel, what 
doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord 
thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve 
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, to 
keep the commandments of the Lord?” (0) Nor did he cease 
to reiterate the same things to them, whenever he intended to 
point out the end of the law. The tendency of the doctrine 
of the law is to connect man with his God, and, as Moses else- 
where expresses it, to make him cleave to the Lord in sanctity 
of life. (p) Now, the perfection of this sanctity consists in two 
principal points, already recited — “that we love the Lord our 
God with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our 
strength, and with all our mind; and our neighbour as our- 
selves.” (q) And the first is, that our souls be completely 
filled with the love of God. From this the love of our neigh- 
bour will naturally follow ; as the Apostle signifies, when he 
says, that “the end of the commandment is charity out of a 
pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.” (7) 
Here we find a good conscience and faith unfeigned, that is, 1n 
a word, true piety, stated to be the grand source from which 
charity is derived. He is deceived, therefore, who supposes 
that the law teaches nothing but certain rudiments and first 
principles of righteousness, by which men are introduced to the 
commencement, but are not directed to the true goal of good 


(0) Deut. x. 12, 13. (q) Luke x. 27. 
(p) Deut. xi. 22. (7) 1 Tim. i. 5. 


374 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1 


works; since beyond the former sentence of Moses, and the lat- 
ter of Paul, nothing further can be wanted to the highest perfec- 
tion. For how far will he wish to proceed, who will not be 
content with this instruction, by which man is directed to the 
fear of God, to the spiritual worship of him, to the observance 
of his commands, to persevering rectitude in the way of the 
Lord, to purity of conscience, and sincere faith and love? 
Hence we derive a confirmation of the foregoing exposition of 
the law, which traces and finds in its precepts all the duties of 
piety and love. For they who attend merely to dry and barren 
elements, as though it taught them but half of the Divine will, 
are declared by the Apostle to have no knowledge of its end. 

LII. But because Christ and his Apostles, in reciting the 
substance of the law, sometimes omit the first table, (s) many 
persons are deceived in this point, who wish to extend their 
expressions to both tables. In the Gospel of Matthew, Christ 
‘calls judgment, mercy, and faith, ‘the weightier matters of the 
law.” By the word faith it is evident to me that he intends 
truth or fidelity towards men. Some, however, in order to ex- 
tend the passage to the whole law, take the word faith to mean 
religion towards God. But for this there is no foundation ; for 
Christ is treating of those works by which man ought to prove 
himself to be righteous. If we attend to this observation, we 
shall cease also to wonder, why, in another place, to the inquiry of 
a young man, what those commandments are by the observance 
of which we enter into life, he only returns the following 
answer: ‘Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit 
adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false wit- 
ness, Honour thy father and thy mother ; and, Thou shalt love 
thy neighbour as thyself.’’ (¢) For obedience to the first table 
consisted chiefly either in the disposition of the heart, or in 
ceremonies. ‘The disposition of the heart was not visible, and 
the ceremonies were diligently performed by hypocrites; but 
the works of charity are such as enable us to give a certain 
evidence of righteousness. But the same occurs in the Prophets 
so frequently, that it must be familiar to the reader who is but 
tolerably conversant with them. For in almost all cases when 
they exhort to repentance, they omit the first table, and insist 
on faith, judgment, mercy, and equity. Nor do they by this 
method neglect the fear of God, but require substantial proof 
of it from those marks. It is well known that when they treat 
of the observation of the law, they generally insist on the 
second table ; because it is in it that the love of righteousness 
and integrity is principally discovered.. It is unnecessary to 
quote the passages, as every person will of himself easily re- 
mark what I have stated. 


(s) Matt. xxiii. 23. (t) Matt. xix. 18, 19. 


CHAP. VIII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 375 


LIIL. Is it, then, it will be asked, of more importance to- 
wards the attainment of righteousness to live innocently with 
men, than piously towards God? By no means. But because 
no man fulfils all the duties of charity, unless he really fear 
God, we derive from those duties a proof of his piety. Be- 
sides, the Lord, well knowing that he can receive no benefit 
from us, which he also declares by the Psalmist, (v) requires 
not our services for himself, but employs us in good works 
towards our neighbour. It is not without reason, then, that the 
Apostle makes all the perfection of the saints to consist in 
love ;(w) which in another place he very justly styles “ the 
fulfilling of the law;” adding, that “he that loveth another 
hath fulfilled the law.” (2) Again: that “all the law is ful- 
filled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour 
as thyself.” (y) For he teaches nothing different from what is 
taught by Christ himself, when he says, ‘ All things whatso- 
ever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to 
them; for this is the law and the prophets.” (z) It is certain that 
in the law and the prophets, faith, and all that pertains to the 
legitimate worship of God, hold the principal place, and that 
love occupies an inferior station ; but our Lord intends that the 
observance of justice and equity among men is only prescribed 
to us in the law, that our pious fear of him, if we really possess 
any, may be proved by our actions. 

LIV. Here, then, we must rest, that our life will then be 
governed according to the will of God, and the prescriptions 
of his law, when it is in all respects most beneficial to our 
brethren. But we do not find in the whole law one syllable, 
that lays down any rule for a man respecting those things 
which he should practise or omit for his carnal convenience. 
And surely, since men are born in such a state, that they are 
entirely governed by an immoderate self-love, — a passion which, 
how great soever their departure from the truth, they ulways 
retain, —there was no need of a law which would inflame that 
love, already of itself too violent. Whence it plainly appears, 
that the observance of the commandments consists not in the 
love of ourselves, but in the love of God and of our neighbour ; 
that his is the best and most holy hfe, who lives as little as 
possible to himself; and that no man leads a worse or more 
iniquitous life, than he who lives exclusively to himself, and 
makes his own interest the sole object of his thoughts and pur- 
suits. Moreover; the Lord, in order to give us the best expres- 
sion of the strength of that love which we ought to exercise 
towards our neighbours, has regulated it by the standard of our 
self-love, because there was no stronger or more vehement af- 


(v) Psalm xvi. 2. (w) Ephes. iii. 17. (z) Rom. xiii. 8. 
(y) Gal. vy. 14. (z) Matt. vii. 12. 


376 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1 


fection. And the force of the expression must be carefully 
examined; for. he does not, according to the foolish dreams of 
some sophists, concede the first place to self-love, and assign 
the second to the love of our neighbour ; but rather transfers 
to others that affection of love which we naturally restrict to 
ourselves. Whence the Apostle asserts that “ charity seeketh 
not her own.” (a) Nor is their argument, that every thing 
regulated by any standard is inferior to the standard by which 
it is regulated, worthy of the least attention. For God does 
not appoint our self-love as the rule, to which our love to 
others should be subordinate ; but whereas, through our natural 
depravity, our love used to terminate in ourselves, he shows 
that it ought now to be diffused abroad ; that we may be ready 
to do any service to our neighbour with as much alacrity, 
ardour, and solicitude, as to ourselves. 

LV. Now, since Christ has demonstrated, in the parable of 
the Samaritan, that the word ‘‘ neighbour’? comprehends every 
man, even the greatest stranger, we have no reason to limit the 
commandment of love to our own relations or friends. Ido 
not deny, that the more closely any person 1s united to us, the 
greater claim he has to the assistance of our kind offices. For 
the condition of humanity requires, that men should perform 
more acts of kindness to each other, in proportion to the close- 
ness of the bonds by which they are connected, whether of 
relationship, or acquaintance, or vicinity ; and this without any 
offence to God, by whose providence we are constrained to it. 
But I assert, that the whole human race, without any excep- 
tion, should be comprehended in the same affection of love, 
and that in this respect there is no difference between the bar- 
barian and the Grecian, the worthy and unworthy, the fnend 
and the foe; for they are to be considered in God, and not in 
themselves, and whenever we deviate from this view of the 
subject, it is no wonder if we fall into many errors. Where- 
fore, if we wish to adhere to the true law of love, our eyes 
must chiefly be directed, not to man, the prospeet of whom 
would impress us with hatred more frequently than with love, 
but to God, who commands that our love to him be diffused 
among all mankind; so that this must always be a fundamental 
maxim with us, that whatever be the character of a man, yet 
we ought to love him because we love God. 

LVI. Wherefore the schoolmen have discovered either their 
ignorance or their wickedness in a most pestilent manner, 
when, treating of the precepts prohibiting the desire of re- 
yenge, and enjoining the love of our enemies, which were an- 
siently delivered to all the Jews, and afterwards equally to all 


(a) 1 Cor. xii. 5. 


CHAP. VIu. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 377 


Christians, they nave made them to be counsels which we are 
at liberty to obey or not to obey, and have confined the neces. 
sary observance of them to the monks, who, on account of this 
very circumstance, would be more righteous than plain Chris- 
tians, because they voluntarily bound themselves to observe 
these counsels. ‘The reason which they assign for not receiv- 
ing them as laws, is, that they appear too burdensome and 
grievous, especially to Christians who are under the law of 
grace. Do they presume in this manner to disannul the eternal 
law of God respecting the love of our neighbour? Is sucha 
distinction to be found in any page of the law? On the con- 
trary, does it not abound with commandments most strictly en- 
joining the love of our enemies? For what is the meaning of 
the injunction to feed our neighbour when he is hungry? (6) 
to direct into the right way his oxen or his asses when they 
are going astray, and to help them when sinking under a bur- 
den?(c) Shall we do good to his cattle for his sake, and feel 
no benevolence to his person? What! is not the word of the 
Lord eternal? ‘ Vengeance is mine, I will repay:” (d) which 
is expressed in another passage still more explicitly: “‘ Thou 
shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of 
thy people.” (e) Let them either obliterate these passages from 
the law, or acknowledge that the Lord was a Legislator, and 
no longer falsely pretend that he was only a counsellor. 

LVI. And what is the meaning of the following expressions, 
which they have presumed to abuse by the absurdity of their 
comment? ‘Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, 
do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which de- 
spitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the 
children of your Father which is in heaven.” (ff) Here, who 
would not argue with Chrysostom, that the allegation of such 
a necessary cause clearly proves these to be, not exhortations, 
but commandments? What have we left us, after being ex- 
punged from the number of the children of God? But accord- 
ing to them, the monks will be the only sons of the heavenly 
Father ; they alone will venture to invoke God as their Father. 
What will now become of the Church? Upon the same prin- 
ciple it will be confined to heathen and publicans. For Christ 
says, ‘If ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? 
do not even the publicans the same?” (g) Shall not we be 
ma happy situation, if they leave us the title of Christians, 
but deprive us of the inheritance of the kingdom of heaven? 
The argument of Augustine is equally strong. When the 
Lord, says he, prohibits adultery, he forbids you to violate the 


(b) Prov. xxv. 21. (d) Rom. xii. 19. (f) Matt. v. 44, 45, 
(c) Exod. xxiii. 4, 5. (e) Lev. xix. 18. (g) Matt. v. 46. 
A8 


VOL. I. 


378 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 11. 


wife of your enemy no less than of your friend: when he ;ro- 
hibits theft, he permits you not to steal from any one, whether 
he be a friend or anenemy. Now, Paul reduces these two pro 
hibitions of theft and adultery to the rule of love, and even 
teaches that they are “briefly comprehended in this saying. 
namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (h) Hither, 
then, Paul must have been an erroneous expositor of the law, — 
or it necessarily follows from this, that we are commanded to love, 
not only our friends, but also our enemies. ‘Those, therefore, 
who so licentiously shake off the yoke common to the children 
of God, evidently betray themselves to be the sons of Satan. It 
is doubtful whether they have discovered greater stupidity or 
inrpudence in the publication of this dogma. For all the 
fathers decidedly pronounce that these are mere precepts. 
That no doubt was entertained on the subject in the time of 
Gregory, appears from his positive assertions; for he treats them 
as precepts, as though it had never been controverted. And 
how foolishly do they argue! They would be a burden, say 
they, too grievous for Christians; as though truly any thing 
could be conceived more difficult, than to love God with all 
our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength. Com- 
pared with this law, every thing must be accounted easy, 
whether it be to love an enemy, or to banish from the mind 
all desire of revenge. 'T'o our imbecility, indeed, every thing 
is arduous and difficult, even the smallest point in the law. It 
is the Lord in whom we find strength: let him giv~ what he 
commands, and let him command what he pleases. The being 
Christians under the law of grace consists not in unbounded 
license uncontrolled by any law, but in being ingrafted into 
Christ, by whose grace they are delivered from the curse of 
the law, and by whose Spirit they have the law inscribed on 
their hearts. This grace Paul has figuratively denominated a 
law, in allusion to the law of God, to which he was comparing 
and contrasting it. Their dispute concerning the word law is 
a disptite about nothing. 

LVIII. Of the same nature is what they have called venial 
sin —a term which they apply to secret impiety, which is a 
breach of the first table, and to the direct transgression of the 
last commandment. For this is their definition, that “it is 
evil desire without any deliberate assent, and without any 
long continuance in the heart.’”? Now, I assert that evil desire 
cannot enter the heart, except through a deficiency of those 
things which the law requires. We are forbidden to have any 
strange gods. When the mind, assaulted by mistrust, looks 
around to some other quarter; when it is stimulated by a sud- 


(h) Rom. xiii. 9. 


CHAP. vit. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 379 


den desire of transferring its happiness from God to some other 
being ; whence proceed these emotions, however transient, but 
from the existence of some vacant space in the soul to receive 
such temptations? And not to protract this argument to greater 
ength, we are commanded to love God with all our heart, 
with all our mind, and with all our soul: therefore, unless all 
‘the powers of our soul be intensely engaged in the love of 
God, we have already departed from the obedience required by 
the law ; for that the dominion of God is not well established 
in our conscience, is evident, from the enemies that there rebel 
against his government, and interrupt the execution of his’ 
commands. ‘That the last commandment properly belongs to 
this point, has been already demonstrated. Have we felt any 
evil desire in our heart? we are already guilty of concupis- 
cence, and are become at once transgressors of the law; be- 
cause the Lord forbids us, not only to plan and attempt any 
thing that would prove detrimental to another, but even to be 
stimulated and agitated with concupiscence. Now, the curse 
of God always rests on the transgression of the law. We have 
no reason, therefore, to exempt even the most trivial emotions 
of concupiscence from the sentence of death. ‘In determining 
the nature of different sins,’ says Augustine, “let us not use 
deceitful balances, to weigh what we please and how we 
please, according to our own humour, saying, This is heavy, 
— This is light; but let us borrow the Divine balance from 
the Holy Scriptures, as from the treasury of the Lord, and 
therein weigh what is heavy ; or rather let us weigh nothing 
ourselves, but acknowledge the weights already determined by 
the Lord.” And what says the Scripture? The assertion of 
Paul, that “‘the wages of sin is death,” (2) sufficiently demon- 
strates this groundless distinction to have been unknown to 
him. As we have already too strong a propensity to hypocrisy, | 
this opiate ought by no means to have been added, to lull our 
consciences into greater insensibility. 

LIX. I wish these persons would consider the meaning of 
this declaration of Christ: ‘“‘ Whosoever shall break one of 
these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be 
called the least in the kingdom of heaven.” (/) Are not they 
of this number, who thus presume to extenuate the transgres- 
sion of the law, as though it were not worthy of death? But 
they ought to consider, not merely what is commanded, but 
who it is that gives the commands ; because the smallest trans- 
gression of the law, which he has given, is a derogation from 
his authority. Is the violation of the Divine majesty in any 
case a trivial thing in their estimation? Lastly, if God has de- 


(t) Rom. vi. 23 (k) Matt. v. 19. 


380 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 11 


clared his will in the law, whatever is contrary to the law dis- 


pleases him. Will they pretend that the wrath of God is so — 


debilitated and disarmed, that the punishment of death cannot 
immediately follow? He has unequivocally declared, if they 
could induce themselves to listen to his voice, rather than ob- 
scure the plain truth with their frivolous subtleties, “The soul 


that sinneth, it shall die ; ’’ (2) and, which I have before cited, 


“'T’he wages of sin is death.” (7) They acknowledge it to be 
sin, because it is impossible to deny it ; yet they contend that it 
is not mortal sin. But, as they have hitherto too much re- 
signed themselves to infatuation, they should at length learn to 
return to the exercise of their reason. If they persevere in 
their dreams, we will take our leave of them. Let the children 
of God know that all sin is mortal; because it is a rebelhon 
against the will of God, which necessarily provokes his wrath ; 
because it is a transgression of the law, against which the Di- 
vine judgment is universally denounced ; and that the offences 
of the saints are venial, not of their own nature, but because 
they obtain pardon through the mercy of God. 


CHAPTER IX. 


CHRIST, THOUGH KNOWN TO THE JEWS UNDER THE LAW, YET 
CLEARLY REVEALED ONLY IN THE GOSPEL, 


As it was not without reason, or without effect, that God 
was pleased, in ancient times, to manifest himself as a Father 
by meaus of expiations and sacrifices, and that he consecrated to 
himself a chosen people, there is no doubt that he was known, 
even then, in the same image in which he now appears to us 
with meridian splendour. ‘Therefore Malachi, after having 
enjoined the Jews to attend to the law of Moses, and to perse- 
vere in the observance of it, (because after his death there was to 
be an interruption of the prophetical office,) immediately an- 
nounces, that “the Sun of righteousness shall arise.” (x) In 
this language he suggests, that the law tended to excite in the 
pious an expectation of the Messiah that was to come, and that 
at his advent there was reason to hope for a much greater de- 
gree of light. For this reason Peter says that ‘the Prophets 
have inquired and searched diligently concerning the salvation,” 
which is now manifested in the gospel; and that “it was re- 


(l) Ezek. xviii. 20. (m) Rom. vi. 23. (n) Mal. iv. 2. 


CHAP. Ix.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 381 


vealed to them, that not unto themselves, but unto us, they did 
minister the things which are now reported unto you by them 
that have preached the gospel unto you.” (0) Not that their 
instructions were useless to the ancient people, or unprofitable 
to themselves, but because they did not enjoy the treasure, 
which God through their hands has transmitted to us. For in 
the present day, the grace, which was the subject of their testi- 
mony, is familiarly exhibited before our eyes; and whereas 
they had but a small taste, we have offered to us a more copious 
fruition of it. ‘Therefore Christ, who asserts that ‘‘ Moses wrote 
of him,’”’(p) nevertheless extols that measure of grace in 
which we excel the Jews. Addressing his disciples, he says, 
** Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they 
hear.” (q) ‘For I tell you, that many prophets and kings 
have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not 
seen them ; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have 
not heard them.” (7) This is no small recommendation of the 
evangelical revelation, that God has preferred us to those holy 
fathers who were eminent for singular piety. ‘To this declara- 
tion that other passage 1s not at all repugnant, where Christ says, 
“ Abraham saw my day, and was glad.” (s) For though his 
prospect of a thing so very remote was attended with much 
obscurity, yet there was nothing wanting to the certainty of a 
well founded hope; and hence that joy which accompanied 
the holy patriarch even to his death. Neither does this asser- 
tion of John the Baptist, ‘‘ No man hath seen God at any time; 
the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he 
hath declared him,” (¢) exclude the pious, who had died before 
his time, from a participation of the understanding and hight 
which shine in the person of Christ ; but, comparing their condi- 
tion with ours, it teaches us that we have a clear manifestation 
of those mysteries, of which they had only an obscure prospect 
through the medium of shadows; as the author of the Epistle 
to the Hebrews more copiously and excellently shows, that 
“God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in 
time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days 
spoken unto us by his Son.” (v) Therefore, though the only 
begotten Son, who is now to us “the brightness of the glory, 
and the express image of the person,’ (w) of God the Father, 
was formerly known to the Jews, as we have elsewhere shown 
by a quotation from Paul, that he was the leader of their an- 
cient deliverance from Egypt; yet this also is a truth, which is 
asserted by the same Paul in another place, that ‘“‘ God, who 
commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in 


(0) 1 Peter i. 10—12. (q) Matt. xiii. 16. = (s) John viii. 56. — (v) Heb. i. 1,2 
(p) John v. 46. (r) Luke x. 24. | = (é) Johni. 18. (w) Heb. i. 3. 


382, INSTITUTES UF THE [Book 1, 


our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of 
God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (x) For when he appeared 
in this his image, he made himself visible, as it were, in com- 
parison with the obscure and shadowy representation of him 
which had been given before. ‘This renders the ingratitude and 
obstinacy of those, who shut their eyes amid this meridian blaze, 
so much the more vile and detestable. And therefore Paul 
says that Satan, “the god of this world, hath blinded their 
minds, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should 
shine unto them.” (y) 

II. Now, I understand the gospel to be a clear manifestation 
of the mystery of Christ. I grant indeed, since Paul styles the 
gospel the doctrine of faith,(z) that whatever promises we 
find in the law concerning the gracious remission of sins, by 
which God reconciles men to himself, are accounted parts of it. 
For he opposes faith to those terrors which torment and ha- 
rass the conscience, if salvation is to be sought by works. 
Whence it follows, that taking the word gospel in a large sense, 
it comprehends all those testimonies, which God formerly gave 
to the fathers, of his mercy and paternal favour; but it is more 
eminently applicable to the promulgation of the grace exhibited 
in Christ. This acceptation is not only sanctioned by com- 
mon use, but supported by the authority of Christ and the 
Apostles. Whence it is properly said of him, that he “ preached 
the gospel of the kingdom.” (a) And Mark introduces himself 
with this preface: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus 
Christ.’ But it is needless to collect more passages to prove a 
thing sufficiently known. Christ, then, by his advent, ‘hath 
brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” (6) 
By these expressions Paul means, not that the fathers were im- 
merged in the shades of death, till the Son of God became in- 
carnate ; but, claiming for the gospel this honourable preroga- 
tive, he teaches that it is a new and unusual kind of legation, 
in which God has performed those things that he had promised, 
that the truth of the promises might appear in the person of 
his Son. For though the faithful have always experienced the 
truth of the assertion of Paul, that ‘all the promises of God in 
him are Yea, and in him Amen,” (c) because they have been 
sealed in their hearts, yet, since he has completed in his body 
all the parts of our salvation, the lively exhibition of those things 
has justly obtained new and singular praise. Hence this de- 
claration of Christ: “‘ Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and 
the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of 
man.’’(d) For though he seems to allude to the ladder which 


(x) 2 Cor. iv. 6. (y) 2 Cor. iv. 4. (z) 1 Tim. iv. 6. 
a) Matt. ix. 35. (6) 2 Tim. 1. 10. » (c) 2 Cor. i. 20. (d) John i. 51, 


CHAP. IX.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 383 


the patriarch Jacob saw in a vision, yet he displays the supe- 
rior excellence of his advent by this character — that he has, 
opened the gate of heaven to give us free admittance into it. — 

III. Nevertheless, we must beware of the diabolical imagi- 
nation of Servetus, who, while he designs to extol the magni- 
tude of the grace of Christ, or at least professes such a design, 
totally abolishes all the promises, as though they were termina- 
ted together with the law. He pretends, that by faith in the 
gospel we receive the completion of all the promises ; as though 
‘there were no distinction between us and Christ. I have just 
observed, that Christ left nothing incomplete of all that was 
essential to our salvation; but it is not a fair inference, that 
we already enjoy the benefits procured by him; for this would 
contradict the declaration of Paul, that ‘hope is laid up for 
us.” (e) I grant, indeed, that when we believe in Christ, we at 
the same time pass from death to life ; but we should also re- 
member the observation of John, that though “ we are now the 
sons of God, it doth not yet appear what we shall be ; but we 
know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we 
shall see him as he is.’”’( ff) ‘Though Christ, therefore, offers us 
in the gospel a present plenitude of spiritual blessings, yet the 
fruition of them is concealed under the custody of hope, till 
we are divested of our corruptible body, and transfigured into 
the glory of him who has gone before us. In the mean time, 
the Holy Spirit commands us to rely on the promises; and his 
authority we ought to consider sufficient to silence all the 
clamours of Servetus. For according to the testimony of Paul, 
‘godliness hath promise of the life that now is, and of that 
which is to come ;’’(g) and therefore he boasts of being an 
Apostle of Christ, ‘‘ according to the promise of life which is in 
Christ Jesus.” (2) In another place he apprizes us that we 
have the same promises which were given to the saints in 
former times. (7) Finally, he represents it as the summit of 
felicity, that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. (x) 
Nor, indeed, have we otherwise any enjoyment of Christ, any 
further than as we embrace him invested with his promises. 
Hence it is, that he dwells in our hearts, and yet we live like 
pilgrims at a distance from him; because “‘ we walk by faith, 
and not by sight.” Nor is there any contrariety in these two 
positions, that we possess in Christ all that belongs to the per- 
fection of the life of heaven, and yet that faith is a vision of 
invisible blessings. Only there is a difference to be observed 
in the nature or quality of the promises; because the gospel 
affords a clear discovery of that which the law has represented 
in shadows and types. 


(e) Col. i. 5. - (g) 1 Tim. iv. 8. (i) 2 Cor. vii. 1. 
(f) 1 John iii, 2. (A) 2 Tim. i. 1. (k) Ephes. i. 13 


384 | INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox n 


IV. This likewise evinces the error of those who never 
make any other comparison between the Law and the Gospel, 
than between the merit of works and the gratuitous imputation 
of righteousness. ‘This antithesis, I grant, is by no means to 


be rejected ; because Paul by the word law frequently intends 


the rule of a righteous life, in which God requires of us what 
we owe to him, affording us no hope of life, unless we fulfil 
every part of it, and, on the contrary, annexing a curse if we 
are guilty of the smallest transgression. ‘This is the sense in 
which he uses it in those passages, where he argues that we 
are accepted by God through grace, and are accounted righteous 
through his pardon of our sins, because the observance of the 
law, to which the reward is promised, is not to be found in any 
man. Paul, therefore, justly represents the righteousness of the 
law and that of the gospel as opposed to each other. But the 
gospel has not succeeded the whole law, so as to introduce a 
different way of salvation; but rather to confirm and ratify the 
promises of the law, and to connect the body with the shadows. 
For when Christ says that “the law and the prophets were 
until John,’ he does not abandon the fathers to the curse 
which the slaves of the law cannot escape; he rather implies 
that they were only initiated in the rudiments of religion, so 
that they remained far below the sublimity of the evangelical 
doctrine. Wherefore, when Paul calls the gospel “the power 
of God unto salvation to every one that believeth,” he after- 
wards adds that it is ‘‘ witnessed by the law and the pro- 
phets.” (2) But at the end of the same Epistle, although he 
asserts that the preaching of Jesus Christ is ‘ the revelation of 
the mystery which was kept secret since the world began,” he 
qualifies this sentiment with the following explication — that it 
“is now made manifest, and by the Scriptures of the prophets 
made known to all nations.’ (mm) Hence we conclude, that 
when mention is made of the whole law, the gospel differs 
from it only with respect to a clear manifestation ; but on ac- 
count of the inestimable plenitude. of grace, which has been 
displayed to us in Christ, the celestial kingdom of God is justly 
said to have been erected in the earth at his advent. 

VY. Now, John was placed between the Law and the Gospel, 
holding an intermediate office connected with both. For 
though, in calling Christ “the Lamb of God” and “the victim 
for the expiation of sins,” (7) he preached the substance of the 
gospel ; yet, because he did not clearly express that incompara- 
ble power and glory which afterwards appeared in his resur- 
rection, Christ affirms that he is not equal to the Apostles. 
This is his meaning in the following words: “ Among them 


(1) Rom. i. 16; iii. 21. (m) Rom. xvi. 25, 26. (n) John i. 29. 


CHAP. x.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 385 


that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than 
John the Baptist : notwithstanding, he that is least in the king- 
dom of heaven is greater than he.’’(0) For he is not there 
commending the persons of men, but after having preferred 
John to all the prophets, he allots the highest degree of honour 
to the preaching of the gospel, which we have elsewhere seen 
is signified by “the kingdom of heaven.’”’? When John himself 
said that he was only a “voice,” (p) as though he were in- 
ferior to the prophets, this declaration proceeded not from a 
pretended humility ; he meant to signify that he was not in- 
trusted with a proper embassy, but acted merely in the ca- 
pacity of a herald, according to the prediction of Malachi: 
“‘ Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming 
of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” (q) Nor indeed, 
through the whole course of his ministry, did he aim at any 
thing but procuring disciples for Christ, which he also proves 
from Isaiah to have been the commission given him by God. 
In this sense he was called by Christ “a burning and a shining 
light,” (7) because the full day had not yet arrived. Yet this 
is no reason why he should not be numbered among: the 
preachers of the gospel, as he used the same baptism which 
was afterwards delivered to the apostles. But it was not till 
after Christ was received into the celestial glory, that the more 
free and rapid progress of the apostles completed what John 
had begun. 


CHAPTER X. 
THE SIMILARITY OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 


From the preceding observations it may now be evid.ant, 
that all those persons, from the beginning of the world, whom 
God has adopted into the society of his people, have been fede- 
rally connected with him by the same law and the same doc- 
trine which are in force among us: but because it is of no 
small importance that this point be established, I shall show, 
by way of appendix, since the fathers were partakers with us 
of the same inheritance, and hoped for the same salvation 
through the grace of our common Mediator, how far their con- 
dition in this connection was different from ours. For though 
the testimonies we have collected from the law and the prophets 
in proof of this, render it sufficiently evident that the people 


(0) Matt. xi. 11. (p) John i. 23. (q) Mal. iv. 5. (r) John vy. 35. 
VOL. I. ear 


i 


386 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK - 


of God have never had any other rule of religion and piety, yet 
because some writers have raised many disputes concerning the 
difference of the Old and New Testaments, which may occasion 
doubts in the mind of an undiscerning reader, we shall assign a 
particular chapter for the better and more accurate discussion of 
this subject. Moreover, what would otherwise have been very 
useful, has now been rendered necessary for us by Servetus and 
some madmen of the sect of the Anabaptists, who entertain 
no other ideas of the Israelitish nation, than of a herd of swine, 
whom they pretend to have been pampered by the Lord in this 
world, without the least hope of a future immortality im heaven. 
To defend the pious mind, therefore, from this pestilent error, 
and at the same time to remove all difficulties which may arise 
from the mention of a diversity between the Old and New 
Testaments, let us, as we proceed, examine what similarity 
there is between them, and what difference ; what covenant 
the Lord made with the Israelites, in ancient times, before the 
advent of Christ, and what he has entered into with us since 
his manifestation in the flesh. 

II. And, indeed, both these topics may be despatched in one 
word. 'The covenant of all the fathers is so far from differing 
substantially from ours, that it is the very same; it only varies 
in the administration. But as such extreme brevity would not 
convey to any mana clear understanding of the subject, it is 
necessary, if we would do any good, to proceed to a more 
diffuse explication of it. But in showing their similarity, or 
rather unity, it will be needless to recapitulate all the particu- 
lars which have already been mentioned, and unseasonable to 
introduce those things which remain to be discussed in some 
other place. We must here insist chiefly on three principal 
points. We have to maintain, First, that carnal opulence and 
felicity were not proposed to the Jews as the mark towards 
which they should ultimately aspire, but that they were adopt- 
ed to the hope of immortality, and that the truth of this adop- 
tion was certified to them by oracles, by the law, and by the pro- 
phets. Secondly, that the covenant, by which they were united 
to the Lord, was founded, not on any merits of theirs, but on 
the mere mercy of God who called them. Thirdly, that they 
both possessed and knew Christ as the Mediator, by whom 
they were united to God, and became partakers of his promises. 
The second of these points, as perhaps it is not yet sufficiently 
known, shall be demonstrated at large in its proper place. For 
we shall prove by numerous and explicit testimonies of the 
prophets, that whatever blessing the Lord ever gave or promised 
to his people, proceeded from his indulgent goodness. ‘lhe 
third point has been clearly demonstrated in several places. 
And we have not wholly neglected the first. 


” 


.s 
CHAP. x. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. O07 


III. In discussing the first point, therefore, because it princi- 
pally belongs to the present argument, and is the grand subject 
of their controversy against us, we will use the more diligent 
application ; yet in such a manner, that if any thing be wanting 
to the explication of the others, it may be supplied as we pro- 
ceed, or added afterwards in a suitable place. Indeed, the apostle 
removes every doubt respecting all these points, when he says, 
that God the Father ‘‘ promised afore by his prophets in the holy 
Scriptures, the gospel concerning his Son,’ (s) which he pro- 
mulgated in the appointed time: and again, that the righteous- 
ness of faith, which is revealed in the gospel, is ‘‘ witnessed by 
the law and the prophets.” (¢) For the gospel does not detain 
men in the joy of the present life, but elevates them to the 
hope of immortality; does not fasten them to terrestrial de- 
lights, but announcing to them a hope reserved in heaven, does 
as it were transport them thither. For this is the description 
which he gives in another place: “In whom also after that ye 
believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, 
which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption 
of the purchased possession.” (v) Again: ‘ We heard of your 
faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the 
saints, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, where- 
of ye heard before in the word of the truth of the sospel. ”(w) 
Again: “ He called you by our gospel, to. the obtaining of the 
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (7) Whence it is called “the 
word of salvation,” and “the power of God to the salvation 
of believers,” and ‘the kingdom of heaven.” Now, if the 
doctrine of the gospel be spiritual, and open a way to the pos- 
session of an immortal life, let us not suppose that they, to 
whom it was promised and announced, were totally negligent 
and careless of their souls, and stupefied in the pursuit. of 
corporeal pleasures. Nor let any one here cavil, that the pro- 
mises which are recorded in the law and the prophets, respect- 
ing the gospel, were not designed for the Jews. For just after 
having spoken of the gospel being promised in the law, he 
adds, ‘‘that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them 
who are under the law.” (y) This was in another argument, 
I grant; but when he said that whatever the law inculcates 
truly belonged to the Jews, he was not so forgetful as not to re- 
member what he had affirmed, a few verses before, concerning 
the gospel promised in the law. By declaring that the Old 
Testament contained evangelical promises, therefore, the 
apostle most clearly demonstrates that it principally related to 
a future life. 

IY. For the same reason it follows, that it was founded on 


(s) Rom. i. 1—3 (v) Ephes. i. 13, 14. (x) 2 Thess. ii. 14. 
(t) Rom. iii. 2h (w) Col. i. 4, 5. (y) Rom. iii. 19. 


388 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book m1 


the free mercy of God, and confirmed by the mediation of 
Christ. For even the preaching of the gospel only announces, 
that sinners are justified by the paternal goodness of God, inde- 
pendently of any merit of their own ; and the whole substance 
of it terminates in Christ. Who, then, dares to represent the 
Jews as destitute of Christ, —them with whom we are in- 
formed the evangelical covenant was made, of which Christ is 
the sole foundation? Who dares to represent them as strangers 
to the benefit of a free salvation, to whom we are informed 
the doctrine of the righteousness of faith was communicated ? 
But not to be prolix in disputing on a clear point, we have a 
remarkable expression of the Lord: ‘‘ Abraham rejoiced to see 
my day ; and he saw it, and was glad.” (z) And what Christ 
there declares concerning Abraham, the apostle shows to have 
been universal among the faithful, when he says that Christ 
remains ‘‘the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” (a) 
For he there speaks, not only of the eternal Divinity of Christ, 
but of his power, which has been perpetually manifested to the 
faithful. Wherefore both the blessed Virgin and Zachariah 
declare, in their songs, that the salvation revealed in Christ is 
a performance of the promises which the Lord had made to 
Abraham and the patriarchs.(6) If the Lord, in the mani- 
festation of Christ, faithfully performed his ancient oath, it can- 
not be denied that the end of the Old Testament was always 
in Christ and eternal life. 

VY. Moreover the apostle makes the Israelites equal to us, 
not only in the grace of the covenant, but also in the significa- 
tion of the sacraments. For when he means to adduce exam- 
ples of the punishments with which the Scripture states them ~ 
to have been formerly chastised, in order to deter the Corin- 
thians from running into similar crimes, he begins by premi- 
sing, that we have no reason to arrogate any preéminence to 
ourselves, which can deliver us from the Divine vengeance 
inflicted on them; since the Lord not only favoured them with 
the same benefits, but illustrated his grace among them by the 
same symbols ; (c) as though he had said, If ye confide in being 
beyond the reach of danger, because both baptism by which you 
have been sealed, and the supper which you daily receive, have 
excellent promises, while at the same time you despise the 
Divine goodness, and live licentious lives, — know ye, that the 
Jews also were not destitute of such symbols, though the Lord 
inflicted on them his severest Judgments. They were baptized 
in their passage through the sea, and in the cloud by which 
they were protected from the fervour of the sun. Our oppo- 
nents maintain that passage to have been a carnal baptism, 


(z) John viii. 56. (a) Heb. xiii. 8. (b) Luke i. 54, 72. (c) 1 Cor. x. 1—11 


CHAP. x. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 389 


corresponding in some degree to our spiritual one. But if that 
were admitted, the apostle’s argument would not proceed ; for 
his design here is to prevent Christians from supposing that 
they excel the Jews in the privilege of baptism. Nor is what 
immediately follows, that they ‘“ did all eat the same spiritual 
meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink,’’ which he « 
interprets of Christ, liable to this cavil. 

VI. To invalidate this declaration of Paul, they object the 
assertion of Christ, ‘‘ Your fathers did eat manna in the wil- 
derness, and are dead. If any man eat of this bread, (that is, 
my flesh,) he shall live for ever.” (d) But the two passages are 
reconciled without any difficulty. The Lord, because he was 
addressing auditors who only sought to be satisfied with cor- 
poreal sustenance, but were unconcerned about food for the 
soul, accommodates his discourse in some measure to their 
capacity, and institutes a comparison between manna and his 
own body, particularly to strike their senses. 'They demand 
that in order to acquire authority to himself, he should prove 
his power by some miracle, such as Moses performed in the 
desert, when he obtained manna from heaven. In the manna, 
however, they had no idea of any thing but a remedy for cor- 
poreal hunger, with which the people were then afflicted. 
They did not penetrate to that sublimer mystery of which Paul 
treats. Christ, therefore, to demonstrate the superiority of the 
blessing they ought to expect from him, to that which they | 
said their fathers had received from Moses, makes this compa- 


‘rison: If it be in your opinion a great and memorable miracle, 


that the Lord, to prevent his people from perishing in the wil- 
derness, supplied them, by means of Moses, with heavenly food, 
which served them as a temporary sustenance, — hence conclude 
how much more excellent that food must be, which communi- 
cates immortality. We see, then, why the Lord omitted the 
principal thing designed by the manna, and only remarked the 
lowest advantage that resulted from it. It was because the 
Jews, as if with an intention of reproaching him, contrasted 
him with Moses, who had supplied the necessities of the people 
with manna. He replies, that he is the dispenser of a far su- 
perior favour, in comparison with which the corporeal suste- 
nance of the people, the sole object of their great admuration, 
deserves to be considered as nothing. Knowing that the Lord, 
when he rained manna from heaven, not only poured it down 
for the support of their bodies, but likewise dispersed it as a 
spiritual mystery, to typify that spiritual vivification which. is 
experienced ‘in Christ, Paul does not neglect that view of the 
subject which is most deserving of consideration. Wherefore 


(d) John vi. 49, 51. 


390 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK IL 


it is certainly and clearly proved, that the same promises of an 
eternal and heavenly life, with which the Lord now favours us, 
were not only communicated to the Jews, but even sealed and 
confirmed by sacraments truly spiritual. This subject is argued 
at length by Augustine against Faustus the Manicheean. 

VII. But if the reader would prefer a recital of testimonies 
from the law and the prophets, to show him that the spiritual 
covenant was common also to the fathers, as we have heard 
from Christ and his apostles, —I will attend to this wish, and 
that with the greater readiness, because our adversaries will 
thereby be more decisively confuted, and will have no pretence 
for any future cavil. I will begin with that demonstration, 
which, though I know the Anabaptists will superciliously deem 
it futile and almost ridiculous, yet will have considerable 
weight with persons of docility and good understanding. And 
I take it for granted, that there is such a vital efficacy in the 
Divine word as to quicken the souls of all those whom God 
favours with a participation of it. For the assertion of Peter 
has ever been true, that it is ‘‘ an incorruptible seed, which abi- 
deth for ever;” (e) as he also concludes from the words of 
Isaiah. (f) Now, when God anciently united the Jews with 
himself in this sacred bond, there is no doubt that he separated 
them to the hope of eternal life. For when I say, that they 
embraced the word which was to connect them more closely 
with God, I advert not to that general species of communica- 
tion with him, which is diffused through heaven and earth, and 
all the creatures in the universe, which although it animates 
all things according to their respective natures, yet does not 
deliver from the necessity of corruption. I refer to that par- 
ticular species of communication, by which the minds of the 
pious are enlightened into the knowledge of God, and in some 
measure united to him. Since Adam, Abel, Noah, Abraham, 
and the other patriarchs, were attached to God by such an illu- 
mination of his word, I maintain, there can be no doubt that 
they had an entrance into his immortal kingdom. For it was 
a real participation of God, which cannot be separated from the 
blessing of eternal life. 

VIII. If the subject still appear involved in any obscuntigs 
let us proceed to the very form of the covenant; which will 
not only satisfy sober minds, but will abundantly prove the ig- 
norance of those who endeavour to oppose it. For the Lord 
has always made this covenant with his servants: ‘I will be — 
your God, and ye shall be my people.” (g) These expressions, 
according to the common explanation of the prophets, compre- 
hend life, and salvation, and consummate felicity. For it is not 


(e) 1 Peter i. 23, 25. (f) Isaiah xl. 8. (g) Lev. xxvi. 12. 


CHAP. X.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 391 


without reason that David frequently pronounces, how “ blessed 
is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he 
hath chosen for his own inheritance ;’’ (i) and that not on ac- 
count of any earthly felicity, but because he delivers from 
death, perpetually preserves, and attends with everlasting 
merey, those whom he has taken for his people. As it is ex- 
pressed in the other prophets, “‘Art thou not from everlasting, 
O Lord my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die.” (7) 
“The Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King; he will 
save us.” (k) ‘Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto 
thee, O people saved by the Lord?” (2) But not to labour 
much on a point which does not require it, we are frequently 
reminded, in reading the prophets, that we shall have a pleni- 
tude of all blessings, and even a certainty of salvation, provided 
the Lord be our God. And that on good ground; for if his 
face, as soon as it has begun to shine, be a present pledge of 
salvation, will God manifest himself to any man without open- 
ing the treasures of salvation to him? For God is our God, on 
the express condition of his ‘‘ walking in the midst of us,” as 
he declared by Moses. (m) But this presence of his cannot be 
obtained without the possession of life. And though nothing 
further had been expressed, they had a promise of spiritual life 
sufficiently clear in these words: ‘‘ lam the Lord your God.” (7) 
For he announced that he would be a God, not only to their 
bodies, but chiefly to their souls ; for the soul, unless united to 
God by righteousness, remains alienated from him at death. 
But let that union take place, and it will be attended with 
eternal salvation. 

IX. Moreover, he not only declared himself to be their God, 
but promised to continue so for ever; in order that their 
hope, not contented with present blessings, might be extended 
to eternity. And that the use of the future tense conveyed 
this idea to them, appears from many expressions, where the 
faithful console themselves not only amidst present evils, but for 
futurity, that God will never desert them. But in regard to the 
second part of the promise, he still more plainly encouraged 
them concerning the extension of the Divine blessing to them 
beyond the limits of the present life: ‘“‘I will be a God to thy 
seed after thee.”’(0) For if he intended to declare his benevo- 
lence to them after they were dead, by blessing their posterity, 
much more would he not fail of manifesting his favour towards 
themselves. F'ér God is not like men, who transfer their love 
to the children of their friends, because death takes away their 
opportunity of performing kind offices to those who were ob- 


(h) Psalm cxliv. 15; xxxiii. 12. (t) Hab. i. 12. (kK) Isaiah xxxiii. 22. 
(l) Deut. xxxili. 29. = (m) Ley. xxvi. 12. (n) Exod.vi.7. (0) Gen. xvii. 7 


392 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 11. 


jects of their regard. But God, whose beneficence is not in- 
terrupted by death, deprives not the dead of the blessings of 
his mercy, which for their sakes he diffuses through a thousand 
generations. ‘I'he design of the Lord, therefore, was to show 
them, by a clear proof, the magnitude and abundance of his 
goodness which they should experience after death, when he 
described its exuberance as reaching to all their posterity. ( p) 
Now, the Lord sealed the truth, and, as it were, exhibited the 
completion of this promise, when he called himself the God of 
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, long after they were dead. (qg) Foi 
what is implied in it?) Would it not have been a ridiculous 
appellation, if they had perished? It would have been just as 
if he had said, I am the God of those who have no existence. 
Wherefore, the evangelists relate, that with this single argu- 
ment the Sadducees were so embarrassed by Christ, (7) as to 
be unable to deny that Moses had given a testimony in favour 
ef the resurrection of the dead; for they had learned from 
Moses himself, that “all his saints are in his hand.” (s) 
Whence it was easy to infer, that death had not annihilated 
those whom he, who is the arbiter of lite and death, had received 
into his guardianship and protection. 

X. Now, to come to the principal point on which this con- 
troversy turns, let us examine, whether the faithful themselves 
were not so instructed by the Lord, as to be sensible that they 
had a better life in another world, and to meditate on that to 
the neglect of the present. In the first place, the course of 
life which was divinely enjoined them wasa perpetual exercise, 
by which they were reminded that they were the most mise- 
rable of all mankind, if they had no happiness but in the 
present life. Adam, rendered most unhappy by the mere re- 
membrance of his lost felicity, finds great difficulty in supply- 
ing his wants by anxious toils. (v) Nor does the Divine male- 
diction confine itself to his manual labours; he experiences 
the bitterest sorrow from that which was his only remaining 
consolation. Of his two sons, he is deprived of one by the 
parricidal hands of his brother; the survivor is deservedly the 
object of his detestation and abhorrence. (w) Abel, cruelly 
assassinated in the flower of his age, exhibits an example of 
human calamity. Noah, while the whole world securely 
abandons itself to sensual delights, consumes a valuable part 
of his life with excessive fatigue in building the ark. (#) His 
escape from death was attended with greater distress than if he 
had died a hundred times. For besides that the ark was, as it 
were, a sepulchre to him for ten months, (y) nothing could be 


(p) Exod. xx. 6. (q) Exod. iii. 6. (r) Matt. xxii. 32—34. Luke xx. 37—40, 
(s) Deut. xxxiil. 3. (v) Gen. in. 17—19. . 
(w) Gen. iy. 8, 14. (z) Gen. vi. 14—21. (y) Gen, vu. 11; vil. 13. 


CHAP. x.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 393 


more disagreeable than to be detained for so long a period al- 
most immersed in the ordure of animals. After having escaped 
from such great difficulties, he meets with a fresh occasion of 
grief. He sees himself ridiculed by his own son, and is con- 
strained to pronounce a curse with his own mouth upon him, 
whom by the great goodness of God he had received safe from 
the deluge. (z) 

XI. Abraham is one who ought to be deemed equal toa 
host, if we consider his faith, which is proposed to us as the 
best standard of believing, so that we must be numbered in his 
family, in order to be the children of God. Now, what would 
be more absurd, than that Abraham should be the father of all 
the faithful, and not possess even the lowest place among 
them? But he cannot be excluded from the number, nor even 
from the most honourable station, without the destruction of 
the whole Church. Now, with respect to the circumstances of 
his life ; — when he is first called, he is torn by the Divine com- 
mand from his country, his parents, and his friends, the enjoy- 
ment of whom is supposed to give life its principal relish ; as 
though God positively intended to deprive him of all the plea- 
sures of life.(a) As soon as he has entered the land in which 
he is‘commanded to reside, he is driven from it by a famine. 
He removes, in search of relief, to a place where, for the preserva- 
tion of his own safety, he finds it necessary to disown his wife, 
which would probably be more afflictive to him than many 
deaths. (b) After having returned to the country of his resi- 
dence, he is again expelled from it by famine. What kind of 
felicity is it to dwell in such a country, where he must so 
frequently experience hunger, and even perish for want of 
sustenance, unless he leaves it? In the country of Abimelech, 
he is again driven to the same necessity of purchasing his own 
personal safety with the loss of his wife (¢) While he wan- 
ders hither and thither for many years in an unsettled state, he 
is compelled, by the continual quarrels of his servants, to send 
away his nephew, whom he regarded asason.(d) ‘There is no 
doubt that he bore this separation just as he would the ampu- 
tation of one of his limbs. Soon after he is informed that 
enemies have carried him away captive. (e) Whithersoever he 
directs his course, he finds himself surrounded by savage bar- 
barians, who will not even permit him to drink the water of 
wells which with immense labour he has himself digged. For 
he could not have bought the use of them from the king of Gerar, 
if it had not been previously prohibited. (f) When he arrives 
to old age, beyond the time of having children, he experiences 


(z) Gen. ix. 24, 25. (a) Gen. xii. 1. (b) Gen. xii. 10O—15. (c) Gen. xx. 1, 2, 
(2d) Gen. xiii. 7—11. (e) Gen. xiv. 12, 13. (f) Gen. xxi. 25—30. 
0 


VOL. I. 


394, INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK IL. 


the most disagreeable and painful circumstance with which 
that age is attended.(g@) He sees himself destitute of posterity, 
till, beyond all expectation, he begets Ishmael ; whose birth he 
purchases at a dear rate, while he is wearied with the re- 
proaches of Sarah, just as if he encouraged the contumacy of 
his maid-servant, and so were himself the cause of the domestic 
disturbance. (h) At length Isaac is born; but his birth is at- 
tended with this condition, that Ishmael the first-born must be 
banished from the family, and abandoned like an enemy. (2) 
When Isaac is left alone to solace the good man in his decli- 
ning years, he is soon after commanded to sacrifice him. (x) 
What can the human mind imagine more calamitous, than for 
a father to become the executioner of his own son? If he had 
been taken away. by sickness, every one would have thought 
the aged parent unhappy in the extreme, as having had a son 
given him in mockery, at the loss of whom, his former grief 
on account of his being destitute of children would certainly 
be redoubled. If he had been massacred by some stranger, 
the calamity would have been greatly increased by the horri- 
ble nature of his end; but to be slain by his father’s own hand 
exceeds all the other instances of distress. In short, through 
the whole course of his life, Abraham was so driven abotit and 
afflicted, that if any one wished to give an example of a life 
full of calamity, he could not find one more suitable. Nor let 
it be objected, that he was not entirely miserable, because he 
had at length a prosperous deliverance from such numerous and 
extreme dangers. For we cannot pronounce his to be a happy 
life, who for a long period struggles through an infinity of 
difficulties ; but his, who is exempted from afflictions, and fa- 
voured with the peaceful enjoyment of present blessings. 

XII. Isaac, though afflicted with fewer calamities, yet scarcely 
ever enjoys the smallest taste of pleasure. “He also experiences 
those vexations which permit not aman to be happy in the 
world. Famine drives him from the land of Canaan; his 
wife is torn from his bosom; his neighbours frequently 
harass him, and take every method of distressing him, so . 
that he also is constrained to contend with them about 
water. (2) In his own family he suffers much uneasiness from 
Esau’s wives ;(m) he is distressed by the discord of his sons, 
and unable to remedy that great evil, but by the exile of him 
to whom he had given the blessing. (7) With respect to Jacob, 
he is an eminent example of nothing but extreme infelicity. 
He passes his childhood at home, amidst the menaces and ter- 
rors of his elder brother, to which he is at length constrained 


(2) Gen. xv. 2. (h) Gen. xvi. 1—15. 
(i) Gen. xxi. 2, 3, 10—14. (k) Gin: Xxil. 2, (l) Gen, xxvi. 1, 7, 20, 21. 
(m) Gen. xxvi. 34, 3d. (n) Gen. xxviii. 5. 


CHAP. x.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 395 


to give way.(0) A fugitive from his parents and his native 
soil, in addition to the bitterness of exile, he is treated with un- 
kindness by his uncle Laban. It is not sufficient for him to en- 
dure a most hard and severe servitude of seven years, but he is 
fraudulently deceived in a wife.(p) For the sake of another 
wite he must enter on a new servitude, (¢) in which, as he 
himself complains, he is scorched all the day by the fervid rays 
of the sun, and through the wakeful night benumbed by the 
icy cold.(r) During twenty years, which he spends in such 
extreme hardships, he is daily afflicted with fresh injuries from 
his father-in-law. Nor does he enjoy tranquillity in his own 
family, which he sees distracted and almost torn asunder by 
the animosities, contentions, and rivalship of his wives. (s) 
When he is commanded to return to his own country, he is 
obliged to depart in a manner resembling an ignominious flight. 
Nor even then can he escape the iniquity of his father-in-law, 
but is harassed with his reproaches and insults in the raidst of 
his journey. (¢) Immediately after, he falls into a much greater 
difficulty. For as he advances towards his brother, he has 
death before his eyes in as many forms as a cruel and inveter- 
ate enemy can possibly contrive. He is exceedingly tormented 
and distracted with dreadful terrors, while he is expecting the ap- 
proach of his brother; when he sees him, he falls at his feet like 
a person half dead, till he finds him more reconciled than he 
could have ventured to hope.(v) Moreover, on his first en- 
trance into the land, he is deprived of Rachel, his dearly be- 
loved wife. (w) Afterwards he hears that the son whom he 
had by her, and whom, therefore, he loved above the rest, is 
torn asunder by wild beasts. ‘The severity of his grief on ac- 
count of his death is expressed by himself, when, after many 
days of mourning, he obstinately refuses all consolation, saying, 
“] will go down into the grave unto my son mourning.” (r) 
In the mean time, the rape and violation of his daughter, and the 
rashness of his sons in revenging it, which not only made him 
an object of abhorrence to all the inhabitants of the country, 
but put him in immediate danger of being massacred ; what 
abundant sources were these of anxiety, grief, and vexa- 
tion!(y) Then follows the ‘horrible crime of Reuben, his 
first-born, than which no greater affliction could befall him. 
For if the pollution of a man’s wife be numbered among the 
greatest miseries, what shall we say of it, when the crime is 
perpetrated by his own son?(z) Not long after, his family is 
contaminated with incest ;(a@) so that such a number of dis- 


(0) Gen. xxvii. 41—45, (s) Gen. xxx. 1. (x) Gen. xxxvil. 32— 35. 
(p) Gen. xxix. 20, 23, 25. (t) Gen. xxxi. 25, 36. (y) Gen. xxxiv. 
(q) Gen. xxix. 27. (v) Gen. xxxil. XxXiil. (z) Gen. xxxv.:22. 


(7) Gen. xxxi. 40, 41, (w) Gen. xxxv. 19. (a) Gen. xxxvill. 13-- 18. 


S96 . INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1 


graceful occurrences may be expected to break a heart other- 
wise very firm and unbroken by calamities. Towards the end 
of life, when he is seeking sustenance for himself and family 
in a season of famine, his ears are wounded by the report of 
anew calamity, which informs him that one of his sons is de- 
tained in prison; and in order to recover him he is obliged to 
intrust his darling Benjamin to the care of the rest.(b) Who 
can suppose that in such an accumulation of distresses he had 
a single moment of respite? He himself, who is best able to 
give a testimony respecting himself, declares to Pharaoh, that 
his days on the earth have been few and evil.(c) By affirming 
that he has lived in continual miseries, he denies that he has 
enjoyed that prosperity which the Lord had promised him. 
Therefore either Jacob formed an improper and ungrateful 
estimate of the favour of God, or he spake the truth in assert- 
ing that he had been miserable on the earth. If his affirmation 
was true, it follows that his hope was not fixed on terrestrial 
things. 

XII. If these holy fathers expected, as undoubtedly they 
did expect, a life of happiness from the hand of God, they both 
knew and contemplated a different kind of blessedness from 
that of this terrestrial hfe. ‘This the apostle very beautifully 
shows, when he says, ‘‘ By faith Abraham sojourned in the 
land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles 
with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise ; 
for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose build- 
er and maker is God. These all died in faith, not having re- 
ceived the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were 
persuaded of them, and embraced them and confessed that they 
were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such 
things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly if 
they had been mindful of that country from whence they came 
out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But 
now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly ; where- 
fore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for he hath 
prepared for them a city.”(d) For they would have been 
stupid beyond all comparison, so steadily to follow promises, of 
which there appeared no hope on earth, unless they had ex- 
pected the completion of them in another world. But the 
apostle, with great force, principally insists on this — that they 
called the present life a pilgrimage, as is also stated by Mo- 
ses.(e) For if they were strangers and sojourners in the land 
of Canaan, what became of the Divine promise, by which they 
had been appointed heirs of it? ‘This manifestly implies, there- 
fore, that the promise, which the Lord had given them concern- 


(6) Gen, xlii. (c) Gen. xlvii. 9. (d) Heb. xi. 9, &c. (e) Gen. xlvii. 9. 


CHAP. x.| CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 397 


ing the possession of it, related to something more remote. 
Wherefore they never acquired a foot of land in Canaan, 
except for a sepulchre ; by which they testified that they had 
no hope of enjoying the benefit of the promise till after death. 
And this is the reason why Jacob thought it so exceedingly 
desirable to be buried there, that he made his son Joseph 
promise it to him by oath;(/f) and why Joseph commanded 
that his bones should be removed thither, even several ages 
after his death, when they would have been long reduced to 
ashes. (2°) 

XIV. In short, it evidently appears, that in all the pursuits 
of life they kept in view the blessedness of the future state. 
For why should Jacob have so eagerly desired, and exposed 
himself to such danger in endeavouring to obtain, the primo- 
geniture, which would occasion his exile, and almost his re- 
jection from his family, but from which he could derive no 
possible benefit, unless he had his views fixed on a nobler 
blessing? And that such was his view he declared in these 
words, which he uttered with his expiring breath: “TI have 
waited for thy salvation, O Lord.” (2) What salvation could 
he expect, when he felt himself about to expire, unless he had 
seen in death the commencement of a new life? But why do 
We argue concerning the saints and children of God, when 
even one, who in other respects endeavoured to oppose the 
truth, was not entirely destitute of such a knowledge? For 
what was the meaning of Balaam, when he said, ‘‘ Let me die 
the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his,” (2) 
but the same which David afterwards expressed in the follow- 
ing words? ‘‘ Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of 
his saints.”(k%) ‘Evil shall slay the wicked.” (2) If death 
were the ultimate bound of human existence, no difference 
could be observed in it between the righteous and the impious; 
the distinction between them consists in the different destinies 
which await them after death. 

XV. We have not yet proceeded beyond Moses; whose 
only office, our opponents allege, was to persuade a cainal 
people to the. worship of God by the fertility of the land, and 
an abundance of all things: and yet, unless any one wilfully 
rejects the evidence presented to him, we already discover a 
clear declaration of a spiritual covenant. But if we come down 
_ to the prophets, there we have the fullest revelation both of 
eternal life and of the kingdom of Christ. And first, with 
what perspicuity and certainty does David direct all his wri- 
tings to this end; though, as he was prior to the rest in point 


(f) Gen. xlvii. 30. (h) Gen. xlix. 18. (k) Psalm exvi. 15. 
(g) Gen. 1. 25. (t) Numb. xxiii. 10. (l) Psalm xxxiv. 21. 


393, INSTITUTES OF THE | [BooK II 


of time, so, according to the order of the Divine dispensation, 
he shadowed forth the heavenly mysteries more obscurely 
than they did! What estimate he formed of his terres- 
trial habitation, the following passage declares: “I am a 
stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. 
Verily, every man at his best estate is altogether vanity. 
Surely every man walketh in a vain show. And now, Lord, 
what wait I for? my hope is.in thee.” (m) He who, after 
having confessed that there is nothing substantial or permanent 
on earth, still retains the constancy of his hope in God, cer- 
tainly contemplates the felicity reserved for him in another 
world. ‘To this contemplation he frequently recalls the faith- 
ful, whenever he wishes to afford them true consolation. For 
in another place, after having spoken of the brevity and the 
transitory nature of human life, he adds, “ But the mercy of 
the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear 
him.” (x) Similar to which is the following: “ Of old hast 
thou laid the foundations of the earth; and the heavens are 
the work of thy hands. ‘They shall perish, but thou shalt 
endure ; yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a 
vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed ; 
but thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end. The 
children of thy servants shall continue, and their seed shall be 
established before thee.” (0) If, notwithstanding the destrue- 
tion of heaven and earth, the pious cease not to be established 
before the Lord, it follows that thejr salvation is connected 
with his eternity. But this hope cannot be at all supported, 
unless it rest on the promise which we find in Isaiah: ‘ The 
heavens,” saith the Lord, ‘‘ shall vanish away like smoke, and 
the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell 
therein shall die in like manner; but my salvation shall be 
for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished ;” (p) 
where perpetuity is ascribed to righteousness and_ salvation, 
considered not as resident in God, but as experienced by men. 

XVI. Nor can what he frequently says concerning the 
prosperity of the faithful be understood in any other sense 
than as referring to the manifestation of the glory of heaven. 
Such are the following passages: ‘‘'The Lord preserveth the 
souls of his saints; he delivereth them out of the hand of the 
wicked. Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the 
upright in heart.” (q¢) Again: “ The righteousness of the right- 
eous endureth for ever; his horn shall be exalted with honour. 
The desire of the wicked shall perish.” (7) Again: ‘Surely 
the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name; the upright 


(m) Psalm xxxix. 12, 5, 6, 7. (0) Psalm cit. 25—28. (q) Psalm xcvii. 10, 11. 
(n) Psalm ciii. 17. (p) Isaiah li. 6. (r) Psalm exii. 9, 10. 


cHaP. x.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 399 


shall dwell in thy presence.” (s) Again: ‘The righteous 
shall be had in everlasting remembrance.” (t) Again: ‘The 
Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants.” (v) For the Lord 
frequently leaves his servants to the rage of the impious, not 
only to be harassed, but to be torn asunder and ruined; he 
suffers good men to languish in obscurity and meanness, while 
the impious are almost as glorious as the stars; nor does he 
exhilarate the faithful with the hght of his countenance, so 
that they can enjoy any lasting pleasure. Wherefore David . 
does not dissemble that, if the faithful fix their eyes on the 
present state of things, they will be most grievously tempted 
with an apprehension lest innocence should obtain from God 


' neither favour nor reward. So much does impiety in most cases 


prosper and flourish, while the pious are oppressed with ig- 
nominy, poverty, contempt, and distress of every kind. ‘“ My 
feet,” says he, “‘ were almost gone; my steps had well nigh 
slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the 
prosperity of the wicked.” (w) At length ‘he concludes his 
account of them: “‘ When I thought to ‘now this, it was too 
painful for me ; until I went into the sanctuary of God; ther. 
understood I their end.” (x) 

XVII. We may learn, then, even from this confession of 
David, that the holy fathers under the Old Testament were not 
ignorant, that God rarely or never in this world gives his servants 
those things which he promises them, and that, therefore, they 
elevated their minds to the sanctuary. of God, where they had 
a treasure in reserve which is not visible amid the shadows of the 
present life. This sanctuary was the last judgment, which, not 
being discernible by their eyes, they were contented to appre — 
hend by faith. Relying on this confidence, whatever events 


_ might befall them in the world, they, nevertheless, had no doubt 


that there would come a time when the Divine promises would 
be fulfilled. This is evident from the following passages: “I 
will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when 


-Lawake, with thy likeness.” (y) Again: ‘I am like a green 


olive-tree in the house of God.” (z) Again: ‘ The righteous 
shall flourish lke the palm-tree: he shall grow like a cedar 
in Lebanon. ‘Those that be planted in the house of the Lord 
shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring 
forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.” He 
had just before said, ‘‘O Lord, how great are thy works! and 
thy thoughts are very deep. When the wicked spring as the 
grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, it is 
that they shall be destroyed for ever.” (a) Where can this 


(s) Psalm exl. 18. (72) Psalm 1xxiii. 2. (z) Psalm lii. 8. 
(t) Psalm exii. 6. (x) Psalm lxxiii. 16, 17. (a) Psalm xcii. 12— 
—@) Psalm xxxiv. 22. (y) Psalm xvii. 15. 14, 5, 7. 


400 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOR 11. 


beauty and gracefulness of the faithful be found, but where 
the appearance of this world has been reversed by the ma- 
nifestation of the kingdom of God? When they could turn 
their eyes towards that eternity, despising the momentary 
rigour of present calamities, they securely broke forth into 
the following expressions: ‘The Lord shall never suffer the 
righteous to be moved. But thou, O God, shalt bring them ” 
(wicked men) ‘‘down into the pit of destruction.” (6) Where, 
in this world, is the pit of destruction, to absorb the wicked, as 
an instance of whose felicity it is mentioned in another place 
that without languishing for any long time “ they go down to 
the grave ina moment?’ (c) Where is that great stability of 
the saints, whom David himself, in the language of complaint, 
frequently represents as not only troubled, but oppressed and 
consumed? He certainly had in view, not any thing. that 
results from the agitations of the world, which are even more 
tumultuous than those of the sea, but what will be accom- 
plished by the Lord, when he shall one day sit in judgment 
to fix the everlasting destiny of heaven and earth. This ap- 


pears from another psalm, in which he gives the following — 


beautiful description: ‘‘ They that trust in their wealth, and 
boast themselves in the multitude of their riches; none of 
them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a 
ransom for him. For he seeth that wise men die, likewise 
the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth 
to others. Their inward thought is, that their houses shall 
continue for ever, and their dwelling-places to all generations ; 
they call their lands after their own names. Nevertheless man 
being in honour abideth not : he is like the beasts that perish. 
This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their 
sayings. Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall 
feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over 
them in the morning ; and their beauty shall consume in the 
grave from their dwelling.” (d) In the first place, this derision 


of fools, for placing their dependence on the mutable and trans-— 


itory blessings of the world, shows that the wise ought to 
seek a very different felicity. But he more evidently discloses 
the mystery of the resurrection, when he establishes the reign 
of the pious after the ruin and destruction of the wicked. 


For what shall we understand by “the morning”? which he- 


mentions, but the revelation of a new life commencing after 
the conclusion of the present ? 

XVIII. Hence arose that reflection, which served the faith- 
ful as a consolation under their miseries, and a remedy for their 
sufferings: “The anger of the Lord endureth but a moment; 


(b) Psalm lv. 22, 23. (c) Job xxi.°13. (d) Psalm xlix. 6, &c. 


i 


CHAP. x.]| CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 4.01 


in his favour is life.” (e) How did they limit their afflictions 
to a moment, who were afflicted all their lifetime? When 
did they perceive so long a duration of the Divine goodness, 
of which they had scarcely the smallest taste? If their views 
had been confined to the earth, they could have made no such 
discovery ; but as they directed their eyes towards heaven, 
they perceived, that the afflictions with which the Lord exer- 
tises his saints are but “for a small moment,” and that the 
“mercies”? with which he “gathers” them are “everlast- 
ing.”(f) On the other hand, they foresaw the eternal and 
never-ending perdition of the impious, who had been happy, 
as in a dream, for a single day. Hence the following senti- 
ments: ‘‘’The memory of the just is blessed; but the name of 
the wicked shall rot.” (g) ‘Precious in the sight of the Lord 
is the death of his saints.” (h) Also in Samuel: “The Lord 
will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent 
in darkness.” (¢) ‘These expressions suggest to us, that they 
well knew, that whatever vicissitudes may befall the saints, yet 
their last end will be life and salvation; and that the pros- 
perity of the impious is a pleasant path, which gradually leads 
to the gulf of everlasting death. Therefore they called the 
death of such the “destruction of the uncircumcised,” (x) as 
of those from whom all hope of resurrection had been cut off. 
Wherefore David could not conceive a more grievous impreca- 
tion than this: ‘ Let them be blotted out of the book of the 
living, and not be written with the righteous.” (2) 

XIX. But the following declaration of Job is remukable 
beyond all others: ‘ I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that 
he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and theugh 
after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall 
I see God; whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall 
behold, and not another.” (7) Some, who wish to display 
their critical sagacity, cavil that this is not to be understood of 
the final resurrection, but even of the first day on which Job 
expected God to be more propitious to him. ‘Though we partly 
concede this, we shall extort an acknowledgment from them, 
whether they are willing or not, that Job could never have 
attained to such an enlarged hope, if his thoughts had been 
confined to the earth. We must, therefore, be obliged to con- 
fess that he, who saw that his Redeemer’ would be present 
with him even when lying in the sepulchre, must have eleva- 
ted his views to a future immortality. For to them, who think 
only of the present life, death is a source of extreme despair, 


which, however, could not annihilate his hope. ‘ Though he 
(e) Psalm xxx. 5. (h) Psalm exvi.15. (1) Psalm Ixix. 2. 
(f) Isaiah liv. 7, 8. (t) 1 Sam. ii. 9. (m) Job xix. 25, &c. 
(g) Prov. x. 7. (k) Ezek. xxviii..10; xxxi. 18. 


VOL. I. 51 


402 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1. 


slay me,” said he, “yet will I trust in him.” (7) Nor let any 
trifler here object, that these were the expressions of a few per- 
sons, and are far from furnishing proof that such a doctrine was 
current among the Jews. I will immediately reply, that these 
few persons did not in these declarations reveal any recondite 
wisdom, in which only superior understandings were separate- 
ly and privately instructed; but that the Holy Spirit having © 
constituted them teachers of the people, they publicly promul- 
gated the Divine mysteries which were to be generally re- 
ceived, and to be the principles of the popular religion. When 
we hear the public oracles of the Holy Spirit, therefore, in 
which he has so clearly and evidently spoken of the spiritual 
life in the Jewish church, it would be intolerable perverseness 
to apply them entirely to the carnal covenant, in which no 
mention is made but of the earth and earthly opulence. 

XX. If we descend to the later prophets, there we may 
freely expatiate as quite at home. For if it was not difficult 
to prove our point from David, Job, and Samuel, we shall do it 
there with much greater facility. For this is the order and 
economy which God observed in dispensing the covenant of 
his mercy, that as the course of time accelerated the period of 
its full exhibition, he illustrated it from day to day with addi- 
tional revelations. 'Therefore, in the beginning, when the first 
“promise was given to Adam, it was like the kindling of some 
feeble sparks. Subsequent accessions caused a considerable 
enlargement of the light, which continued to increase more and 
more, and diffused its splendour through a wide extent, 
till at length, every cloud being dissipated, Christ, the Sun 
of Righteousness, completely illuminated the whole world. 
There is no reason to fear, therefore, if we want the suffrages 
of the prophets in support of our cause, that they will fail us. 
But as I perceive it would be a very extensive field, which 
would engross more of our attention than the nature of our 
design will admit, — for it would furnish matter for a large vo- 
lume, —and as I also think that by what has been already said, 
I have prepared the way even for a reader of small penetration 
to proceed without any difficulties, I shall abstain from a pro- 
lixity which at present is not very necessary. I shall only 
‘caution the reader to advance with the clew which we have put 
into his hand; namely, that whenever the prophets mention 
the blessedness of the faithful, scarcely any vestiges of which 
are discernible in the present life, he should recur to this dis- 
tinction ; that in order to the better elucidation of the Divine 
goodness, the prophets represented it to the people in a figura- 
tive manner ; but that they gave such a representation of it as 


(n) Job xiii. 15. . 


CHAP. x.| . CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 403 


would withdraw the mind from earth and time, and the ele- 
ments of this world, all which must ere long perish, and would 
jecessarily excite to a contemplation of the felicity of the fu- 
ture spiritual life. 

XX}. We will content ourselves with one example. When 


- the Israelites, after being carried to Babylon,: perceived how 


very much their dispersion resembled a death, they could 
scarcely be convinced that the prophecy of Ezekiel concerning 
their restitution (0) was not a mere fable; for they considered 
it in the same light, as if he had announced, that putrid car- 


-casses would be restored to life. ‘The Lord, in order to show 


that even that difficulty would not prevent him from displaying 
his beneficence, gave the prophet a vision of a field full of dry 
bones, which he instantaneously restored to life and vigour 
solely by the power of his word. ‘The vision served indeed to 
correct the existing incredulity ; but at the same time it re- 
minded the Jews, how far the power of the Lord extended be- 
yond the restoration of the people, since the mere expression 
of his will so easily reanimated the dry and dispersed bones. 


Wherefore you may properly compare that passage with another 


of Isaiah: “‘’Thy dead men shall live ; together with my dead 
body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust; 
for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out 
the dead. Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, 
and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a 
little moment, until the indignation be overpast. For, behold, 
the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of 
the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her 


blood, and shall no more cover her slain.” (p) 


XXII. It would be absurd, however, to attempt to reduce 
every passage to such a canon of interpretation. For there are 
some places, which show without any disguise the future im- 


mortality which awaits the faithful in the kingdom of God. 


Such are some which we have recited, and such are many 
others, but particularly these two ; one in Isaiah: “ As the new 
heavens and the new earth which I will make, shall remain be- 
fore me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name re- 
main. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to 
another, and from one sabbath to another, shall all flesh come 
to worship before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth, 
and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed 
against me; for their worm shall not die, neither shall their 
fire be quenched.” (q¢) And another in Daniel: ‘‘ At that time 
shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for 
the children of thy people ; and there shall be a time of trouble 


(0) Ezek. xxxvii. (p) Isaiah xxvi. 19—21. (q) Isaiah lxvi. 22—24, 


AOA, INSTITUTES OF THE -[Boox m1. 


such as never was since there was a nation even to that same 
time ; and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one 
that shall be found written in the book. And many of them 
that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to ever- 
lasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” (7) 

XXIII. Now, the two remaining points, that the fathers had 
Christ as the pledge of their covenant, and that they reposed in 
him all their confidence of the blessing, being less controverti- 
ble and more plain, I shall take no pains to prove them. We 
may safely conclude, therefore, what all the machinations of 
the devil can never subvert, that the Old Testament, or co- 
venant which the Lord made with the Israelitish nation, was 
not limited to terrestrial things, but contained a promise of 
spiritual and eternal life; the expectation of which must have 
been impressed on the minds of all who truly consented to the 
covenant. 'Then let us drive far away from us this absurd 
and pernicious notion, either that the Lord proposed nothing — 
else to the Jews, or that the Jews sought nothing else, but 
an abundance of food, carnal delights, flourishing wealth, 
external power, a numerous offspring, and whatever is es- 
teemed valuable by a natural man. For under the present 
dispensation, Christ promises to his people no other kingdom 
of heaven, than where they may sit down with Abraham, 
Isaac, and Jacob; (s) and Peter asserted the Jews of his time 
to be heirs of the grace of the gospel, when he said that “ they 
were the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which 
God made with their fathers.” (¢) And that this might not 
only be testified in words, the Lord also proved it by a matter 
of fact. For on the day in which he rose from the dead, he 
honoured many of the saints with a participation of his resur- 
rection, and caused them to appear in the city; (w) thus fur 
nishing a certain assurance that whatever he did and suffered 
for the acquisition of eternal salvation, belonged to the faith- 
ful of the Old Testament as much as to us. For, as Peter 
declares, they also were endued with the same Spirit, who is 
the author of our regeneration to life. (w) When we are in- 
formed that the same Spirit, which is as it were a spark of 
immortality in us, and is therefore called in one place “the 
earnest of our inheritance,” (7) dwelt in a similar manner in 
them, how can we dare to deprive them of the inheritance of 
eternal life? It is therefore the more surprising, that the Sad- 
ducees formerly fell into such stupidity as to deny the resur- 
rection, and the immortality of the soul, since they had proofs © 
of these points from such clear testimonies of Scripture. And 
the folly of the whole nation of the Jews in the present age, in 


(r) Dan. xii. 1, 2. (t) Acts iii. 25. (w) Acts xv. 8. 
(s) Matt. viii. 11. (u) Matt. xxvii.52. © (a) Eph.i. 14. 


CHAP. x1I.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 405 


expecting:an earthly kingdom of the Messiah, would be equal- 
ly extraordinary, had not the Scriptures long before pre- 
dicted that they would thus be punished for their rejection of 
the gospel. [or it was consistent with the righteous judgment 
of God to strike with blindness the minds of those,’ who, re- 
jecting the light of heaven when presented to them, kept 
themselves in voluntary darkness. ‘Therefore they read 
Moses, and assiduously turn over his pages, but are prevented 
by an interposing veil from perceiving the light which beams 
in his countenance ;(y) and thus it will remain covered and 
eoncealed to them, till they are converted to Christ, from 
whom they now endeavour as much as they can to withdraw 
and divert it. 


CHAPTER XI. 


. THE DIFFERENCE OF THE TWO TESTAMENTS. 


“Wuar, then, it will be said, will there be no difference left 
between the Old Testament and the New? and what becc mes 
_ of all those passages of Scripture, where they are compared toge- 
ther as things that are very different? I readily admit the dif- 
ferences which are mentioned in the Scripture, but I maintain 
that they derogate nothing from the unity already established ; 
as will be seen when we have discussed them in proper order. 
But the principal differences, as far as my observation or 
memory extends, are four in number; to which if any one 
choose to add a fifth, I shall not make the least objection. I 
assert, and engage to demonstrate, that all these are such as 
pertain rather to the mode of administration, than to the sub- 
stance. In this view, they will not prevent the promises of 
the Old and New Testament from remaining the same, and the 
promises of both Testaments from having in Christ the same 
foundation. , Now, the first difference is, that although it was 
always the will of the Lord that the minds of his people should 
be directed, and their hearts elevated, towards the celestial in- 
heritance, yet, in order that they might be the better encouraged 
to hope for it, he anciently exhibited it for their contemplation 
and partial enjoyment under the figures of terrestrial blessings 
Now, having by the gospel more clearly and explicitly re- 
vealed the grace of the future life, he leaves the inferior mode 
of instruction which he used with the Israelites, and directs 


(y) 2 Cor. iii. 14—16. 


406 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK s, 


our minds to the immediate contemplation of it. ‘Those who 
overlook this design of God, suppose that the ancients ascended 
no higher than the corporeal blessings which were promisea 
them; they so frequently hear the land of Canaan mentionea 
as the eminent, and indeed the only, reward for the observers 
of the Divine law. They hear that God threatens the trans- 
eressors of this law with nothing more severe than being ex- 
pelled from the possession of that country, and dispersed into 
foreign lands. ‘They see this to be nearly the whole substance 
of all the blessings and of all the curses pronounced by Moses. 
Hence they confidently conclude, that the Jews were separa- 
ted from other nations, not for their own sakes, but for ours, 
that the Christian Church might have an image, in whose ex- 
ternal form they could discern examples of spiritual things. 
But since the Scripture frequently shows, that God himself 
appointed the terrestrial advantages with which he favoured 
them for the express purpose of leading them to the hope of 
celestial blessings, it argued extreme inexperience, not to say 
stupidity, not to consider such a dispensation. The point of 
controversy between us and these persons, is this: they maing 
tain that the possession of the land of Canaan was accounted 
by the Israelites their supreme and ultimate blessedness, but 
that to us, since the revelation of Christ, it is a figure of the 
heavenly inheritance. We, on the contrary, contend, that in — 
the earthly possession which they enjoyed, they contemplated, 
as in a mirror, the future inheritance which they believed to 
be prepared for them in heaven. 

II. This will more fully appear from the similitude which 
Paul has used in his Epistle to the Galatians. (z) He compares 
the Jewish nation to a young heir, who, being yet incapable of 
governing himself, follows the dictates of a tutor or a governor, 
to whose charge he has been committed. His application of 
this similitude chiefly to the ceremonies, is no objection against 
the propriety of its application to our present purpose. ‘The 
same inheritance was destined for them as for us; but they 
were not of a sufficient age to be capable of entering on the 
possession and management of it. The Church among them 
was the same as among us; but it was yet in a state of child- 
hood. Therefore the Lord kept them under this tuition, that 
he might give them the spiritual promises, not open and un- 
concealed, but veiled under terrestrial figures. Therefore, 
when he admitted Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with their pos- 
terity, to the hope of immortality, he promised them the land 
of Canaan as their inheritance; not that their hopes might 
terminate in that land, but that in the prospect of it they might 


(z) Gal. iv. 


CHAP. XI. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. A407. 


exercise and confirm themselves in the hope of that true in- 
heritance which was not yet visible. And that they might 
not be deceived, a superior promise was given them, which 
proved that country not to be the highest blessing which God 
would bestow. ‘T‘hus Abraham is not permitted to grow indo- 
lent after having- received a promise of the land, but a greater 
promise elevates his mind to the Lord. For he hears him 
saying, ‘‘ Abram, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great re- 
ward.” (a) Here we see that the Lord proposes himself to 
Abraham as his ultimate reward, that he may not seek an un- 
certain and transitory one in the elements of this world, but 
may consider that which can never fade away. God after- 
wards annexes a promise of the land, merely as a symbol of his 
benevolence, and a type of the heavenly inheritance. And 
that this was the opinion of the saints, is plain from their own 
language. ‘hus David rises from temporary blessings to that 
consummate and ultimate felicity. ‘My soul longeth, yea, 
even fainteth, for the courts of the Lord.” (b) ‘God is my 
portion for ever.” (c) Again: ‘‘The Lord is the portion of 
mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.” (d) 
Again: ‘I cried unto thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my 
refuge and my portion in the land of the living.” (e) Persons 
who venture to express themselves thus, certainly profess that 
in their hopes they rise above the world and all present bless- 
ings. Nevertheless the prophets frequently describe this bless- 
edness of the future world under the type which the Lord had 
given them. In this sense we must understand the following 
passages: “‘ The righteous shall inherit the land;” (f) ‘ But 
the wicked shall be cut off from the earth ;” (g) and various. 
predictions of Isaiah, which foretell the future prosperity of Je- 
rusalem, and the abundance that will be enjoyed in Zion. 
We see that all these things are inapplicable to the land of our 
pilgrimage, or to the earthly Jerusalem, but that they belong to 
the true country of the faithful, and to that celestial city, where 
“the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.” (1) 

Ill. This is the reason why the saints, under the Old 'Tes- 
tament, are represented as holding this mortal life with its 
blessings in higher estimation than becomes us now. For al- 
though they well knew that they ought not to rest in it as the 
end of their course, yet when they recollected what characters 
of his grace the Lord had impressed on it, in order to instruct 
them in a manner suitable to their tender state, they felt a 
greater degree of pleasure in it than if they had considered it 
merely in itself. But as the Lord, in declaring his benevolence 


(a) Gen. xv. 1. (b) Psalm Ixxxiv. 2. (c) Psalm Ixxiii. 26. 
(d) Psalm xvi. 5. (e) Psalm exlii. 5. 
(f) Psalm xxxvii. 29. (g) Prov. ii. 22. (hk) Psalm cxxxiil. 3. 


408 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 11. 


to the faithful by present blessings, gave them, under these 
types and symbols, a figurative exhibition of spiritual felicity, 
so, on the other hand, in corporal punishments he exemplified 
his judgment against the reprobate. ‘Therefore, as the favours 
of God were more conspicuous in earthly things, so also were his 
punishments. Injudicious persons, not considering this analogy 
and harmony (so to speak) between the punishments and re- 
wards, wonder at so great a variety in God, that in ancient 
times he was ready to avenge all the transgressions of men by 
the immediate infliction of severe and dreadful punishments, but 
now, as if he had laid aside his ancient wrath, punishes with 
far less severity and frequency ; and on this account they 
almost adopt the notion of the Manichzans, that the God of the 
Old Testament is a different being from the God of the New. 
But we shall easily get rid of such difficulties, if we direct our 
attention to that dispensation of God, which I have observed ; 
namely, that during that period, in which he gave the Israelites 
his covenant involved in some degree of obscurity, he intended 
to signify and prefigure the grace of future and eternal felicity 
by terrestrial blessings, and the grievousness of spiritual death 
by corporal punishments. 

IV. Another difference between the Old Testament and the 
New consists in figures, because the former, in the absence of 
the truth, displayed merely an image and shadow imstead of 
the body ; but the latter exhibits the present truth and the sub- 
stantial body. (7) And this is generally mentioned wherever 
the New Testament is opposed to the Old, but is treated more 
at large in the Epistle to the Hebrews ‘than in any other 
place. (k) The apostle is there disputing against those who 
supposed that the observance of the Mosaic law could not be 
abolished, without being followed by the total ruin of religion. 
To refute this error, he adduces the prediction of the psalmist 
concerning the priesthood of Christ; (2) for since he has an 
eternal priesthood committed to him, we may argue the cer- 
tain abolition of that priesthood, m which new priests daily 
succeeded each other. (mm) But he proves the superiority of 
the appointment of this new Priest, because it is confirmed 
with an oath. (n) He afterwards adds that this transfer of the 
priesthood implies also a change of the covenant. (0) And he 
proves that this change was necessary, because such was the 
imbecility of the law, that it could bring nothing to perfec- 
tion. (p) Then he proceeds to state the nature of this imbe- 
cility ; namely, that the law prescribed external righteousnesses, 
consisting in carnal ordinances, which could not make the ob- 


(t) Col. ii. 17. (k) Heb. x. 1, &c. (1) Heb. vii. 17. Psalm ex. 4. 
‘m) Heb. vii. 23, 24. (m) Heb. vii. 20, 21. (0) Heb. vii. 12. © (p) Heb. vii. 19 


- 


CHAP. x1. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 409 


servers of them “ perfect as pertaining to the conscience,” that 
by animal victims it could neither expiate sins nor procure 
true holiness. (g) He concludes, therefore, that it contained “a 
shadow of good things to come, but not the very image of the 
things; (7) and that consequently it had no other office, but 
to serve as an introduction to ‘‘a better hope,” (s) which is ex- 
hibited in the gospel. Here we have to inquire in what 
respect the Legal covenant is compared with the Evangelical, 
the ministry of Christ with the ministry of Moses. For if the 
comparison related to the substance of the promises, there 
would be a great discordance between the two testaments ; 
but as the state of the question leads us to a different point, 
we must attend to the scope of the apostle, in order to discover 
the truth. Let us, then, bring forward the covenant, which 
God has once made, which is eternal, and never to be abo-, 
lished. The accomplishment, whence it derives its establish- 
ment and ratification, is Christ. While such a confirmation 
was waited for, the Lord by Moses prescribed ceremonies, to 
serve as solemn symbols of the confirmation. It came to bea 
subject of contention, whether the ceremonies ordained in the 
law ought to cease and give place to Christ. Now, though these 
ceremonies were only accidents or concomitants of the covenant, 
yet being the instruments of its administration, they bear the 
name of the covenant; as it is common to give to other sacra- 
ments the names of the things they represent. Ina word, there- 
fore, what is here called the Old Testament is a solemn method 
of confirming the covenant, consisting of ceremonies and sacri- 
fices. Since it contains nothing substantial, unless we pro- 
ceed further, the apostle contends that it ought to be repealed 
and abrogated, in order to make way for Christ, the Surety and 
Mediator of a better testament, (¢) by whom eternal sanctifica- 
tion has been at once procured for the elect, and those trans- 
gressions obliterated, which remained under the law. Or, if 
you prefer it, take the following statement of it; that the Old 
Testament of the Lord was that which was delivered to the 
Jews, involved in a shadowy and inefficacious observance of 
ceremonies, and that it was therefore temporary, because it re- 
mained as it were in suspense, till it was supported by a firm 
and substantial confirmation; but that it was made new and 
eternal, when it was consecrated and established by the blood 
of Christ. Whence Christ calls the cup which he gives to 
his disciples in the supper, ‘‘ the cup of the New Testament in 
his blood ;” (u) to signify that when the testament of God is 
sealed with his blood, the truth of it is then accomplished, and 
thus it is made new and eternal. 


(q) Heb. ix. 13,14; x. 4. (r) Heb. x. 1. (s) Heb. vii. 19. 
(t) Heb. vii. 22. (u) Matt. xxvi 28. 
VOL. I. 52 


A410 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book m 


V. Hence it appears in what sense the apostle said, that the 
Jews were conducted to Christ by the tuition of the law, be- 
fore he was manifested in the flesh.(w) He confesses also 
that they were children and heirs of God, but such as, on ac- 
count of their age, required to be kept under the care of a 
tutor. (#) For it was reasonable that before the Sun of Right- 
eousness was risen, there should be neither such a full blaze 
of revelation, nor such great clearness of understanding. 
Therefore the Lord dispensed the hght of his word to them 
in such a manner, that they had yet only a distant and obscure 
prospect of it. Paul describes this slenderness of understand- 
ing as a state of childhood, which it was the Lord’s will to 
exercise in the elements of this world and in external obser- 
vances, as rules of puerile discipline, till the manifestation of 
Christ, by whom the knowledge of the faithful was to grow to 
maturity. Christ himself alluded to this distinction, when he 
said, ‘‘'The law and the prophets were until John: since that 
time the kingdom of God is preached.” (y) What discoveries 
did Moses and the prophets make to their contemporaries? 
They afforded them some taste of that wisdom which was in 
after times to be clearly manifested, and gave them a distant 
prospect of its future splendour. But when Christ could be 
plainly pointed out, the kingdom of God was revealed. For 
in him are discovered ‘‘all the treasures of wisdom and know- 
ledge,” (z) by which we penetrate almost into the furthest re- 
cesses of heaven. 

VI. Nor is it any objection to our argument, that scarcely a 
person can be found in the Christian Church, who is to be 
compared with Abraham in the excellency of his faith; or 
that the prophets were distinguished by such energy of the 
Spirit as, even at this day, is sufficient to illuminate the whole 
world. For our present inquiry is, not what grace the Lord 
has conferred on a few, but what is the ordinary method 
which he has pursued in the instruction of his people; such as 
is found even among the prophets themselves, who were endued 
with peculiar knowledge above others. For their preaching is 
obscure, as relating to things very distant, and is comprehended 
in types. Besides, notwithstanding their wonderful eminence 
in knowledge, yet because they were under a necessity of sub- 
mitting to the same tuition as the rest of the people, they are 
considered as sustaining the character of children as well as 
others. Finally, none of them possessed knowledge so clear 
as not to partake more or less of the obscurity of the age. 
Whence this observation of Christ: ‘Many prophets and 
kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have 


(w) Gal. in. 24. (x) Gal. iv. 1, &c. (y) Luke xvi. 16. (z) Col. ii. 3. 


CHAP. XI.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. Ail 


not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and 
have'not heard them.” (a) “Blessed are your eyes, for they 
see; and your ears, for they hear.’’(b) And, indeed, it is 
reasonable that the presence of Christ should be distinguished 
by the prerogative of introducing a clearer revelation of the 
mysteries of heaven. ‘To the same purpose also is the passage, 
which we have before cited from the First Epistle of Peter, 
that it was revealed to them, that the principal advantage of 
their labours would be experienced in our times. (c) 

VII. I come now to the third difference, which is taken 
from Jeremiah, whose words are these: ‘Behold, the days 
come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with 
the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah ; not accord- 
ing to the covenant that’I made with their fathers in the day 
that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of 
Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was a 
husband to them, saith the Lord; but this shall be the cove- 
nant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those 
days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, 
aud write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they 
shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man 
his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the 
Lord ; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto 
the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their 
iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (d) From 
this passage the apostle took occasion to institute the following 
comparison between the law and the gospel: he calls the for- 
mer a literal, the latter a spiritual doctrine; the former, 
he says, was engraven on tables of stone, but the latter 
is inscribed on the heart;(e) the former was the preaching 
of death, but the latter of life; the former was the minis- 
tration of condemnation, but the latter of righteousness; the 
former is abolished, but the latter remains. As the design of 
the apostle was to express the sense of the prophet, it will be 
sufficient for us to consider the language of one of them, in 
order to discover the meaning of both. ‘There is, however, 
some difference between them. For the apostle speaks of the 
law in less honourable terms than the prophet does; and that 
not simply with respect to the law itself, but, because there 
were some disturbers, who were full of improper zeal for the law, 
and by their perverse attachment to the ceremonies. obscured 
the glory of the gospel, he disputes concerning the nature of 
the law with reference to their error and foolish affection for it. 
This peculiarity in Paul, therefore, will be worthy of cur obser- 


(a) Luke x. 24, (b) Matt. xiii. 16. (c) 1 Peter 1. 12, 
(d) Jer. xxxi. 31, &c. (e) 2 Cor. ili. 6, wc. 


7 


412 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK m, 


vation. Both of them, as they contrast the Old and New Tes- 
taments with each other, consider nothing in the law, but what 
properly belongs to it. For example, the law contains fre- 
quent promises of mercy; but as they are borrowed from 
another dispensation, they are not considered as part of the law, 
when the mere nature of the law is the subject of discussion. 
All that they attribute to it is, that it enjoins what is right, and 
prohibits crimes; that it proclaims a reward for the followers 
of righteousness, and denounces punishments against transgres- 
sors; but that it neither changes nor corrects the depravity of 
heart which is natural to all men. 

VIII. Now, let us explain the comparison of the apostle in 
all its branches. In the first place, the Old 'Testament is lite- 
ral, because it was promulgated without the efficacy of the 
Spirit; the New is spiritual, because the Lord has engraven 
it in a spiritual manner on the hearts of men. 'The second 
contrast, therefore, serves as an elucidation of the first. The 
Old Testament is the revelation of death, because it can only 
involve all mankind in a curse; the New is the instrument of 
life, because it delivers us from the curse, and restores us to 
favour with God. The former is the ministry of condemna- 
tion, because it convicts all the children of Adam of unright- 
eousness ; the latter is the ministry of righteousness, because it 
reveals the mercy of God, by which we are made righteous. 
The last contrast must be referred to the legal ceremonies. 
The law having an image of things that were at a distance, it 
was necessary that in time it should be abolished and disap- 
pear. ‘lhe gospel, exhibiting the body itself, retains a firm 
and perpetual stability. Jeremiah calls even the moral law a 
weak and frail covenant, but for another reason; namely, be- 
cause it was soon broken by the sudden defection of an un- 
grateful people. But as such a violation arises from the fault 
of the people, it cannot be properly attributed to the Testament. 
The ceremonies, however, which at the advent of Christ were 
abolished by their own weakness, contained in themselves the 
cause of their abrogation. Now, this difference between the 
‘letter’? and the “spirit”? is not to be understood as if the 
Lord had given his law to the Jews without any beneficial re- 
sult, without one of them being converted to him; but it is 
used in a way of comparison, to display the plenitude of grace 
with which the same Legislator, assuming as it were a new 
character, has honoured the preaching of the gospel. For if 
we survey the multitude of those, from among all nations, 
whom, by the influence of his Spint in the preaching of the 
gospel, the Lord has regenerated and gathered into commu- 
nion with his Church, we shall say that those of the ancient 
Israelites, who cordially and sincerely embraced the covenant 


” 


CHAP. xI.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. ALS 


of the Lord, were extremely few; though, if estimated by 
themselves without any comparison, they amounted to a con- 
siderable number. 

1X. The fourth difference arises out of the third. For the 
Scripture calls the Old Testament a covenant of bondage, be- 
cause it produces fear in the mind; but the New it describes 
as a covenant of liberty, because it leads the heart to confidence 
and security. Thus Paul, in the eighth chapter of his Epistle 
to the Romans, says, ‘‘ Ye have not received the spirit of 
bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adop- 
tion, whereby we cry, Abba; Father.” (f) ‘To the same pur- 
pose is that passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews, that the 
faithful now “are not come unto the mount that might be 
touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and 
darkness, and tempest,’’ where nothing can be either heard or 
seen, but what must strike terror into the mind; so that even 
Moses himself is exceedingly afraid at the sound of the terrible 
voice, which they all pray that they may hear no more; but 
that now the faithful ‘‘are come unto mount Sion, and unto 
the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,’ (g°) &c. 
What Paul briefly touches in the passage which we have 
adduced from the Epistle to the Romans; he explains more at 
large in his Epistle to the Galatians, when he allegorizes the 
two sons of Abraham in the following manner—that Agar, the 
bond-woman, is a type of mount Sinai, where the people of 
Israel received the law ; that Sarah, the free-woman, is a figure 
of the celestial Jerusalem, whence proceeds the gospel. That 
as the son of Agar is born in bondage, and can never attain to 
the inheritance, and the son of Sarah is born free, and hasa 
right to the inheritance, () so by the law we were devoted to 
slavery, but by the gospel alone are regenerated to liberty. 
Now, the whole may be summed up thus — that the Old Testa- 
ment filled men’s consciences with fear and trembling; but 
that by the benefit of the New Testament, they are delivered, 
and enabled to rejoice. The former kept their consciences 
under a yoke of severe bondage ; but by the liberality of the 
latter they are emancipated and admitted to liberty. If any 
one object to us the case of the holy fathers of the Israelitish 
people, that as they were clearly possessed of the’ same spirit 
of faith as we are, they must consequently have been partakers 
of the same liberty and joy, we reply, that neither of these 
originated from the law ; but that, when they felt themselves, 
by means of the law, oppressed with their servile condition, 
and wearied with disquietude of conscience, they fled for refuge 
to the gospel; and that therefore it was a peculiar advantage 


(f) Rom. viii. 15. (g) Heb. xii. 18, &e. (h) Gal. iv. 22, &e. 


" 


414, INSTITUTES OF THE [Boon 1. 


of the New Testament, that they enjoyed an exception from 
the common law of the Old Testament, and were exempted 
from those evils. Besides, we shall deny that they were fa- 
voured with the spirit of liberty and security, to such a degree 
as not to experience from the law some measure both of fear 
and of servitude. For notwithstanding their enjoyment of that 
privilege, which they obtained by the grace of the gospel, yet 
they were subject to the same observances and burdens as the 
people in general. As they were obliged, therefore, to a diligent 
observance of these ceremonies, which were emblems of the state 
of pupilage similar to bondage, and the hand-writing, by which 
they confessed themselves guilty of sin, did not release them 
from the obligation, they may justly be said, in comparison 
with us, to have been under a testament of bondage and fear, 
when we consider the common mode of procedure which the 
Lord then pursued with the Israelitish nation. 

X. The three last comparisons which we have mentioned 
are between the law and the gospel. In these, therefore, “‘ the 
Old Testament ”’ denotes the law ; and ‘‘the New 'Testament,”’ 
the gospel. 'The first comparison extends further, for it com- 
prehends also the promises, which were given before the law. 
When Augustine denied that they ought to be considered as 
part of the Old T’estament, he gave a very proper opinion, and 
intended the same that we now teach; for he had in view those 
passages of Jeremiah and Paul, in which the Old Testament is 
distinguished from the word of grace and mercy. He very 
judiciously adds also in the same place, that the children of the 
promise, from the beginning of the world, who have been re- 
generated by God, and, under the influence of faith working by 
love, have obeyed his commands, belong to the New 'Testa- 
ment ; and that, in hope, not of carnal, terrestrial, and temporal 
things, but of spiritual, celestial, and eternal blessings; especially 
belieying in the Mediator, through whom they doubted not that 
the Sint was dispensed to them to enable them to do their 
duty, and that whenever they sinned they were pardoned. 
For this is the very same thing which I meant to assert : That 
all the saints, whom, from the beginning of the world, the 
Scripture mentions as having been peculiarly chosen by God, 
have been partakers of the same blessing with us to eternal 
salvation. Between our distinction and that of Augustine 
there is this difference — that ours (according to this declaration 
of Christ, ‘the law and the prophets were until John; since 
that time the kingdom of God is preached ;”’) (2) distinguishes 
between the clearness of the gospel and the more obscure dis- 
pensation of the word which preceded it ; whilst the other merely 


(t) Luke xvi. 16. 


-cHap. x1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. ALD 


discriminates the weakness of the law from the stability of the 
gospel. Here it must also be remarked concerning the holy 
fathers, that though they lived under the Old Testament, they 
did not rest satisfied with it, but always aspired after the New, 
and thus enjoyed a certain participation of it. For all those 
who contented themselves with present ‘shadows, and did not 
extend their views to Christ, are condemned by the apostle as 
blind and under the curse. For, to say nothing on other points, 
what greater ignorance can be imagined than to hope for an 
expiation of sin by the sacrifice of an animal? than to seek 
for the purification of the soul by an external ablution with 
water? than to wish to appease God with frigid ceremonies, as 
though they afforded him great pleasure? _ F'or all these absurdi- 
ties are chargeable on those who adhere to the observances of 
the law, without any reference to Christ. 

XI. The fifth difference, which we may add, consists in 
this —that till the advent of Christ, the Lord selected one 
nation, to which he would limit the covenant of his grace. 
Moses says, ‘‘ When the Most High divided to the nations 
their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, — the 
Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheri- 
tance.” (k) In another place he thus addresses the people: 
“Behold, the heaven, and the heaven of heavens is the Lord’s 
thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is. Only the 
- Lord had a delight in thy fathers to love them, and he chose 
their seed after them, even you above all people.” (2) 'There- 
fore he favoured that people with the exclusive knowledge of 
his name, as though they alone of all mankind belonged 
to him; he deposited his covenant as it were in their bosom; 
to them he manifested the presence of his power; he honoured 
them with every privilege. But to omit the rest of his benefits, 
the only one that relates to our present argument is, that he 
united them to himself by the communication of his word, in 
order that he might be denominated and esteemed their God. 
In the mean time he suffered other nations, as though they had 
no business or intercourse with him, to walk in vanity ; (7) 
nor did he employ means to prevent their destruction by send- 
ing them the only remedy —the preaching of his word. The 
Israelitish nation, therefore, were then as darling sons; others 
were strangers: they were known to him, and received under 
his faithful protection ; others were left to their own darkness. 
they were sanctified by God; others were profane: they were 
honoured with the Divine presence; others were excluded 
-from approaching it. But when the fulness of the time was 
come, (n) appointed for the restoration of all things, (0) and 


(kK) Deut. xxxii. 8, 9. (l) Deut. x. 14. (m) Aets xiv. 16. 
(n) Gal. iv. 4. (0) Matt. xvii. 11. 


A416 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK IL. 


the Reconciler of God and men was manifested, (p) the barrier 
was demolished, which had so long confined the Divine mercy 
within the limits of the Jewish church, and peace was an- 
nounced to them who were at a distance, and to them who 
were near, that being both reconciled to God, they might 
coalesce into one people. Wherefore “there is neither Greek 
nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, but Christ is all and 
in all;”’(q) ‘“‘to whom the heathen are given for his inheri- 
tance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his posses- 
sion;”’ (7) that he may have a universal “‘dominion from sea 
to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth.” (s) 

XII. The vocation of the Gentiles, therefore, is an eminent 
illustration of the superior excellence of the New Testament 
above the Old. It had, indeed, before been most explicitly an- 
nounced in numerous predictions of the prophets; but so as 
that the completion of it was deferred to the kingdom of the 
Messiah. And even Christ himself made no advances towards 
it at the first commencement of his preaching, but deferred it 
till he should have completed all the parts of our redemption, 
finished the time of his humiliation, and received from the 
Father ‘“‘a name which is above every name, before which 
every knee shall bow.’ (¢) Wherefore, when this season was 
not yet arrived, he said to a Canaanitish woman, “I am not 
sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel: (w) nor 
did he permit the apostles, in his first mission of them, to ex- 
ceed these limits. ‘Go not,” says he, “into the way of the 
Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not; 
but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (w) 
And though this calling of the Gentiles was announced by so 
many testimonies, yet when the apostles were about to enter 
upon it, it appeared to them so novel and strange, that they 
dreaded it, as if it had been a prodigy: indeed it was with 
trepidation and reluctance that they at length engaged in it. 
Nor is this surprising; for it seemed not at all reasonable, that 
the Lord, who for so many ages had separated the Israelites 
from the rest of the nations, should, as it were, suddenly change 
his design, and annihilate this distinction. It had indeed been 
predicted in the prophecies; but they could not pay such great 
attention to the prophecies, as to be wholly unmoved with the 
novelty of the circumstance, which forced itself on their obser- 
vation. Nor were the specimens, which the Lord had formerly 
given, of the future vocation of the Gentiles, sufficient to in- 
fluence them. For besides his having called only very few of 
‘hem, he had even incorporated them into the family of Abra- 


(p) Eph. i. 14. (q) Col. iii. 11. (r) Psalm ii. 8. (s) Psalm Ixxii. 8. 
(t) Phil. ii. 9, 10. (wu) Matt. xv. 24. (w) Matt. x. 5, 6. 


CHAP. x1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 417 


ham, that they might be added to his people; but by that 
public vocation, the Gentiles were not only raised to an equal- 
ity with the Jews, but appeared to succeed to their places as 
though they had been dead. Besides, of all the strangers 
whom God had before incorporated into the Church, none 
were ever placed on an equality with the Jews. ‘Therefore 
it is not without reason that Paul so celebrates this “ mys- 
tery which was hidden from ages and from generations,” (x) 
and which he represents as an object of admiration even to 
angels. (y) 

XIII. In these four or five points, I think I have given a 
correct and faithful statement of the whole of the difference 
between the Old and the New ‘Testament, as far as is sufficient 
for a simple system of doctrine. But because some persons re- 
present this variety in the government of the Church, these dif- 
ferent modes of instruction, and such a considerable alteration of 
rites and ceremonies, as a great absurdity, we must reply to 
them, before we proceed to other subjects. And this may be 
done in a brief manner, since the objections are not so strong 
as to require a laborious refutation. It is not reasonable, they 
say, that God, who is perpetually consistent with himself, 
should undergo so great a change as afterwards to disallow 
what he had once enjoined and commanded. I reply, that God 
ought not therefore to be deemed mutable, because he has ac- 
commodated different forms to different ages, as he knew 
would be suitable for each. If the husbandman prescribes 
different employments to his family in the winter, from those 
which he allots them in the summer, we must not therefore 
accuse him of inconstancy, or impute to him a deviation from 
the proper rules of agriculture, which are connected with the — 
perpetual course of nature. ‘Thus, also, if a father instructs, 
governs, and manages his children one way in infancy, another 
in childhood, and another in youth, we must not therefore 
charge him with being inconstant, or forsaking his own de- 
signs. Why, then, do we stigmatize God with the character of 
inconstancy, because he has made an apt and suitable distinc- 
tion between different times? ‘The last similitude ought fully 
to sat sfy us. Paul compares the Jews to children, and Chris- 
tians to youths. (z) What impropriety is there in this part of 
the government of God, that he detained them in the rudiments 
which were suitable to them on account of their age, but has 
placed us under a stronger and more manly discipline? It isa 
proof, therefore, of the constancy of God, that he has delivered 
the same doctrine in all ages, and perseveres in requiring the 
same worship of his name which he commanded from the 


(x) Col. i. 26. (y) Eph. iii. 10. (z) Gal. iv. 13. 
VOL. I. 53 


418 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK If 


beginning. By changing the external form and mode, he has 
discovered no mutability in himself, but has so far accommo- 
dated himself to the capacity of men, which is various and 
mutable. 

XIV. But they inquire whence this diversity proceeded, 
except from the will of God. Could he not, as well from the 
beginning as since the advent of Christ, give a revelation of ~ 
eternal life in clear language without any figures, instruct his 
people by a few plain sacraments, bestow his Holy Spirit, and 
diffuse his grace through all the world? 'This is just the same 
as if they were to quarrel with God, because he created the 
world at so late a period, whereas he might have done it be- 
fore; or because he has appointed the alternate vicissitudes 
of summer and winter, of day and night. But let us not doubt 
what ought to be believed by all pious men, that whatever is 
done by God is done wisely and righteously ; although we 
frequently know nothing of the causes which render such 
transactions necessary. For it would be arrogating too much . 
to ourselves, not to permit God to keep the reasons of his de- 
crees concealed from us. But it is surprising, say they, that 
he now rejects and abominates the sacrifices of cattle, and all 
the apparatus of the Levitical priesthood, with which he used 
to be delighted; as though truly these external and transi- 
tory things could afford pleasure to God, or affect him in any 
way whatever. It has already been observed, that he did 
none of these things on his own account, but appointed them 
all for the salvation of men. If a physician cure a young man 
of any disease by a very excellent method, and afterwards 
adopt a different mode of cure with the same person when ad- 
vanced in years, shall we therefore say that he rejects the 
method of cure which he before approved? We will rather 
say, that he perseveres in the same system, and considers the 
difference of age. Thus it was necessary, before the appear- 
ance of Christ, that he should be prefigured, and his future 
advent announced by one kind of emblems ; since he has been 
manifested, it is right that he should be represented by others. 
But with respect to the Divine vocation, now more widely ex- 
tended among all nations since the advent of Christ than it 
was before, and with regard to the more copious effusion of the 
eraces of the Spirit, who can deny, that it is reasonable and 
just for God to retain under his own power and will the free 
dispensation of his favours; that he may illuminate what na- 
tions he pleases; that wherever he pleases he may introduce 
the preaching of his word; that he may give to his instruction 
whatever kind and degree of profit and success he pleases ; that — 
wherever he pleases, in any age, he may punish the ingratitude 
wf the world by depriving them of the knowledge of his name, 


CHAP. XII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. A19 


and when he pleases restore it on account of his mercy? We 
see, therefore, the absurdity of the cavils with which impious 
. men disturb the minds of the simple on this subject, to call in 
question either the righteousness of God or the truth of the 
Scripture. 


CHAPTER XIL 


THE NECESSITY OF CHRIST BECOMING MAN IN ORDER TO FUUFIL 
THE OFFICE OF MEDIATOR. 


Ir was of great importance to our interests, that he, who 
was to be our Mediator, should be both true God and true man. 
If an inquiry be made concerning the necessity of this, it was 
not indeed a simple, or, as we commonly say, an absolute 
necessity, but such as arose from the heavenly decree, on 
which the salvation of men depended. But our most merciful 
Father has appointed that which was best for us. For since 
our iniquities, like a cloud intervening between us and him, 
had entirely alienated us from the kingdom of heaven, no one 
that could not approach to God could be a mediator for the 
restoration of peace. But who could have approached to him? 
Could any one of the children of Adam? They, with their 
parent, all dreaded the Divine presence. Could any one of the 
angels? 'l‘hey also stood in need of a head, by a connection 
with whom they might be confirmed in a perfect and unvary- 
ing adherence to their God. What, then, could be done? Our 
situation was truly deplorable, unless the Divine majesty itself 
would descend to us; for we could not ascend to it. Thus it 
was necessary that the Son of God should become Immanuel, 
that is, God with us; and this in order that there might be a 
mutual union and coalition between his Divinity and the na- 
ture of man; for otherwise the proximity could not be suffi- 
ciently near, nor could the affinity be sufficiently strong, to 
authorize us to hope that God would dwell with us. So great 
was the discordance between our pollution and the perfect pu- 
rity of God. Although man had remained immaculately inno- 
cent, yet his condition would have been too mean for him to 
approach to God without a Mediator. What, then, can he do, 
after having been plunged by his fatal fall into death and hell, 
defiled with so many blemishes, putrefying in his own corrup- 
tion, and, in a word, overwhelmed with every curse? It is not 
without reason, therefore, that Paul, when about to exhibit 
Christ in the character of a Mediator, expressly speaks of him 


420 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boon 1 


asa man. ‘There is one Mediator,” he says, ‘‘ between God 
and man, the man Christ Jesus.” (a) He might have called 
him God, or might indeed have omitted the appellation of man, 
as well as that of God; but because the Spirit, who spake by 
him, knew our infirmity, he has provided a very suitable 
remedy against it, by placing the Son of God familiarly among 
us, as though he were one of us. Therefore, that no one may 
distress himself where he is to seek the Mediator, or in what 
way he may approach him, the apostle, by denominating him 
aman, apprizes us that he is near, and even close to us, since 
he is our own flesh. He certainly intends the same as is sta- 
ted in another place more at large — ‘that we have not a 
high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our 
infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet 
without sin.” (b) 

If. This will still more fully appear, if we consider, that it 
was no mean part which the Mediator had to perform ; namely, 
to restore us to the Divine favour, so as, of children of men, to 
make us children of God; of heirs of hell, to make us heirs of 
the kingdom of heaven. Who could accomplish this, unless 
the Son of God should become also the Son of man, and thus 
receive to himself what belongs to us, and transfer to us that 
which is his, and make that which is his by nature ours by 
grace? Depending, therefore, on this pledge, we have confi- 
dence that we are the children from God, because he, who is the 
Son of God by nature, has provided himself a body from our 
body, flesh from our flesh, bones from our bones, (c) that he 
might be the same with us: he refused not to assume that 
which was peculiar to us, that we also might obtain that 
which he had peculiar to him; and that so in common with 
us he might be both the Son of God and the Son of man. 
Hence arises that holy fraternity, which he mentions with his 
own mouth in the following words: “I ascend unto my Fa- 
ther, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” (d) 
On this account we have a certainty of the inheritance of the 
kingdom of heaven, because the only Son of God, to whom it 
exclusively belonged, has adopted us as his brethren; and if 
we are his brethren, we are consequently co-heirs to the inheri- 
tance. (e) Moreover it was highly necessary also for this 
reason, that he who was to be our Redeemer should be truly 
both God and man. It was his office to swallow up death; 
who could do this, but he who was life itself? It was his to 
overcome sin; who could accomplish this, but righteousness 
itself? It was his to put to flight the powers of the world and 
of the air; who could do this, but a power superior both to 


(a) 1 Tim. ii. 5. (b) Heb. iv. 15. (c) Eph. vy. 30. 
(d) John xx. 17. (e) Rom. viii. 17, 


CHAP. XII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. AQ] 


the world and to the air? Now, who possesses life or right- 
eousness, or the empire and power of heaven, but God alone? 
Therefore the most merciful God, when he determined on our 
redemption, became himself our Redeemer in the person of his 
only begotten Son! 

Ili. Another branch of our reconciliation with God was 
this — that man, who had ruined himself by his own disobe- 
dience, should remedy his condition by obedience, should 
satisfy the justice of God, and suffer the punishment of his 
sin. Our Lord then made his appearance as a real man; he 
put on the character of Adam, and assumed his name, to act 
as his substitute in his obedience to the Father, to lay down 
ow flesh as the price of satisfaction to the justice of God; and 
to suffer the punishment which we had deserved, in the same 
nature in which the offence had been committed. As it would 
have been impossible, therefore, for one who was only God to 
suifer death, or for one who was a mere man to overcome it, 
he associated the human nature with the Divine, that he might 
submit the weakness of the former to death, as an atonement 
for sins; and that with the power of the latter he might con- 
tend with death, and obtain a victory on our behalf. Those 
who despoil Christ, therefore, either of his Divinity or his hu- 
manity, either diminish his majesty and glory, or obscure his 
zoodness. Nor are they, on the other hand, less injurious to 
men, whose faith they weaken and subvert ; since it cannot 
stand any longer than it rests upon this foundation. Moreover, 
the Redeemer to be expected was that Son of Abraham and 
David, whom God had promised in the law and the prophets. 
Hence the minds of the faithful derive another advantage, be- 
cause from the circumstance of his ancestry being traced to 
David and to Abraham, they have an additional assurance that 
this is the Christ, who was celebrated in so many prophecies. 
But we should particularly remember, what I have just stated — 
that our common nature is a pledge of our fellowship with the 
Son of God; that, clothed in our flesh, he vanquished sin and 
death, in order that the victory and triumph might be ours ; 
that the flesh which he received from us he offered up as a 
sacrifice, in order to expiate and obliterate our guilt, and ap- 
pease the just wrath of the Father. 

IV. The persons who consider these things, with the dili- 
gent attention which they deserve, will easily disregard vague 
speculations which attract minds that are inconstant and fond 
of novelty. Such is the notion, that Christ would have be- 
come man, even though the human race had needed no re- 
demption. I grant, indeed, that at the original creation, ard in 
the state of integrity, he was exalted as head over angels and 
men ; for which reason Paul calls him “ the first-born of every 


429, INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox. lt 


creature ;’’ (f) but since the whole Scriptures proclaim, that he 
was clothed in-flesh in order to become a Redeemer, it argues 
excessive temerity to imagine another cause or another end for 
it. ‘The end for which Christ was promised from the begin- 
ning, is sufficiently known; it was to restore a fallen world, 
and to succour ruined men. ‘Therefore under the law his 
image was exhibited in sacrifices, to inspire the faithful with a 
hope that God would be propitious to them, after he should be 
reconciled by the expiation of their sins. And as, in all ages, 
even before the promulgation of the law, the Mediator was 
never promised without blood, we conclude that he was des- 
tined by the eternal decree of God to purify the pollution of 
men; because the effusion of blood is an emblem of expiation. 
The prophets proclaimed and foretold him, as the future re- 
conciler of God and men. As a sufficient specimen of all, we 
refer to that very celebrated testimony of Isaiah, where he 
predicts, that he should be smitten of God for the transgressions 
of the people, that the chastisement of their peace might be 
upon him ; and that he should be a priest to offer up himself 
as a victim; that by his stripes others should be healed; and 
that because all men had gone astray, and been dispersed like 
sheep, it had pleased the Lord to afflict him and to lay on 
him the iniquities of all.(g) As we are informed that Christ 
is particularly appointed by God for the relief of miserable 
sinners, all who pass these bounds are guilty of indulging a 
foolish curiosity. When he himself appeared in the world, he 
declared the design of his advent to be, to appease God and 
restore us from.death to life. ‘The apostles testified the same. 
Thus John, before he informs us that the Word was made flesh, 
mentions the defection of man.(h) But our principal attention 
is due to Christ himself speaking of his own office. He says, 
‘“God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have 
everlasting life.” (¢) Again: ‘The hour is coming, and now is, 
when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and 
they that hear shall live.” (4) ‘I am the resurrection and the 
life ; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall 
he live.” (2) Again: “The Son of man is come to save that 
which was lost.” (m) Again: “'They that be whole need not — 
a physician.’ (72) "There would be no end, if I meant to quote 
all the passages. ‘The apostles with one consent call us back 
to this principle ; for certainly, if he had not come to reconcile 
God, the honour of his priesthood would have been lost, for a 
priest is appointed as a Mediator to intercede between God and 


(f) Col. i. 15. (g) Isaiah liii. 4, &c. (h) John i. 9, &c, 
zt) John iii. 16. (k) John v. 25. 
(2) John xi. 25. (m) Matt. xviii. 11. (n) Matt. ix. 12. 


CHAP. x11. CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 423 


men: (0) he could not have been our righteousness, because he 
was made a sacrifice for us, that God might not impute sins to 
us.(y) Finally, he would have been despoiled of all the noble 
characters under which he is celebrated in the Scripture. 
This assertion of Paul would have no foundation: ‘* What the 
law could not do, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of 
sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” (q) Nor 
would there be any truth in what he teaches in another place, 
that “ the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man 
appeared” (7) in the gift of Christ asa Redeemer. ‘T'o con- 
clude, the Scripture no where assigns any other end, for which 
the Son of God should choose to become incarnate, and should 
also receive this command from the Father, than that he might 
be made a saerifice to appease the Father on our account. 
“Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer ; 
and that repentance should be preached in his name.” (s) 
‘“‘'herefore doth my Father love me, because ‘I lay down my 
life. This commandment have I received of my Father.” (¢) 
‘* As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so 
must the Son of man be lifted up.” (w) Again: ‘ Father, save 
me from this hour; but for this cause came I unto this 
hour.” (w) “ Father, glorify thy Son.” (2) Where he clearly 
assigns, as the end of his assumption of human nature, that it 
was to be an expiatory sacrifice for the abolition of sins. For 
the same reason, Zacharias pronounces that he is come, accord- 
ing to the promise given to the fathers, “to give light to them 
that sit in the shadow of death.” (y) Let us remember that 
all these things are spoken of the Son of God, “in whom,” 
according to the testimony of Paul, ‘‘are hidden all the trea- 
sures of wisdom and knowledge,” (z) and besides whom he 
glories in knowing nothing. (a) 

V. If any one object, that it is not evinced by any of these 
things, that the same Christ, who has redeemed men from con- 
demnation, could not have testified his love to them by assum- 
ing their nature, if they had remained in a state of integrity 
and safety,—we briefly reply, that since the Spirit declares 
these two things, Christ’s becoming our Redeemer, and his 
participation of the same nature, to have been connected by 
the eternal decree of God, it is not right to make any further 
inquiry. For he who feels an eager desire to know something 
more, not being content with the immutable appointment of 
God, shows himself ‘also not to be contented with this Christ, 
who has been given to us as the price of our redemption, 


(0) Heb. v. 1. (s) Luke xxiv. 46, 47. (x) John xvii. 1. 


(p) 2 Cor. v. 19. (t) John x. 17, 18. (y) Luke i. 72, 79. 
(q) Rom. viii. 3. (uw) John iii. 14. (z) Col. ii. 3 


(r) Titus ii. 4. (w) John xii. 27. (a) 1 Cor. i. 2. 


4QA, INSTITUTES OF THE [Book m1. 


Paul not only tells us the end of his mission, but ascending to 
the sublime mystery of predestination, very properly represses 
all the licentiousness and prurience of the human mind, by de- 
claring, that “the Father hath chosen us in Christ before the 
foundation of the world, and predestinated us to the adoption 
of children according to the good pleasure of his will, and 
made us accepted in his beloved Son, in whom we have re- 
demption through his blood.” (6) Here the fall of Adam is 
certainly not presupposed, as of anterior date; but we have a 
discovery of what was decreed by God before all ages, when 
he determined to remedy the misery of mankind. If any ad- 
versary object again, that this design of God depended on the 
fall of man, which he foresaw, it is abundantly sufficient for me, 
that every man is proceeding with impious presumption to ima- 
gine to himself a new Christ, whoever he be that permits him- 
self to inquire, or wishes to know, concerning Christ, any more 
than God has predestinated in his secret decree. And justly 
does Paul, after having been thus treating of the peculiar office 
of Christ, implore, on behalf of the Ephesians, the spirit of 
understanding, ‘ that they may be able to comprehend what is | 
the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know 
the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge ;” (c) as though 
he would labour to surround our minds with barriers, that 
wherever mention is made of Christ, they may not decline in 
the smallest degree from the grace of reconciliation. _Where- 
fore, since ‘ this is ” testified by Paul to be ‘a faithful saying, 
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” (d) I 
gladly acqutesce in it. And since the same apostle in another 
place informs us, that ‘‘the grace, which is now made manifest 
by the gospel, was given us in Christ Jesus before the world 
began,” (e) I conclude that I ought to persevere in the same 
doctrine with constancy to the end. This modesty is unrea- 
sonably censured by Osiander, who in the present age has un- 
happily agitated this question, which a few persons had shghtly 
touched before. He alleges a charge of presumption against 
those who deny that the Son of God would have appeared in 
the flesh, if Adam had never fallen, because this tenet is con- 
tradicted by no testimony of Scripture; as if Paul laid no 
restraint on such perverse curiosity, when, after having spoken’ 
of the accomplishment of our redemption by Christ, he imme- 
diately adds this injunction: ‘ Avoid foolish questions.” (f ) 
The frenzy of some, that have been desirous of appearing pro- 
digiously acute, has proceeded to such a length as to question 
whether the Son of God could assume the nature of an ass. 


(6) Eph. i. 4, &e. (c) Eph. iii 18,19. (d) 1 Timi. 5. 
(e) 2 Tim. i. 9. (f) Titus iii. 9. 


CHAP. XII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 425 


This monstrous supposition, which all pious persons justly ab- 
hor and detest, Osiander excuses under this pretext, that it is 
nowhere in Scripture expressly condemned; as if, when Paul 
esteems nothing valuable or worthy of being known but Christ 
crucified, he would admit an ass to be the author of salvation! 
Therefore he who in another place declares that Christ was ap- 
pointed by the eternal decree of the Father as “the head 
over all,” (¢) would never acknowledge any other who had not 
been appointed to the office of a Redeemer. 

Vi. But the principle which he boasts is altogether fri- 
volous. He maintains that man was created in the image of 
God, because he was formed in the similitude of the future 
Messiah, that he might resemble him whom the Father had 
already decreed to clothe with flesh. Whence he concludes 
that if Adam had never fallen from his primitive integrity, 
Christ would nevertheless have become man. How nugatory 
and forced this is, all who possess a sound judgment readily 
perceive. But he supposes that he has been the first to dis- 
cover wherein the Divine image consisted; namely, that the 
_ glory of God not only shone in those eminent talents with 
which man was endued, but that God himself essentially re- 
sided in him. Now, though I admit that Adam bore the Di- 
vine image, inasmuch as he was united to God, which is the true 
and consummate perfection of dignity, yet I contend that the 
similitude of God is to be sought only in those characters of 
excellence, with which God distinguished Adam above the 
other creatures. And that Christ was even then the image of 
God, is universally allowed ; and therefore whatever excellence 
was impressed on Adam proceeded from this circumstance, that 
he approached to the glory of his Maker by means of his only 
begotten Son. Man, therefore, was made in the image of God, 
and was designed to be a mirror to display the glory of his 
Creator. He was exalted to this degree of honour by the 
favour of the only begotten Son; but I add, that this Son was 
a common head to angels as well as to men; so that the angels 
also were entitled to the same dignity which was conferred on 
man. And when we hear them called the ‘children of 
God,” (h) it would be unreasonable to deny that they have 
some resemblance to their Father. But if he designed his 
glory to be represented in angels as well as in men, and to be 
equally conspicuous in the angelic as in the human nature, 
Osiander betrays his ignorance and folly in saying that men 
were preferred to angels, because the latter did not bear the 
image of Christ. For they could not constantly enjoy the 
present contemplation of God, unless they were like him. And 


(g) Eph. i. 22. (b) Psalm Ixxxii. 6. 
V@L. I. 4 


426 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 1. 


_ Paul teaches us that men are no otherwise renewed after the 
image of God, than that if they be associated with angels, they 
may be united together under one head.(7) Finally, if we 
give credit to Christ, our ultimate felicity, when we shall be 
received into heaven, will consist in being conformed to the 
angels. But if Osiander may infer, that the primary exemplar 
_of the Divine image was taken from the human nature of 
Christ, with the same justice may any other person contend, 
that Christ must have been a partaker of the nature of angels, 
because they likewise possess the image of God. 

VII. Osiander, then, has no reason to fear, that God might 
possibly be proved a liar, unless the decree concerning the in- 
carnation of his Son had been previously and immutably fixed 
in his mind. Because, though Adam had not fallen from his 
integrity, yet he would have resembled God just as the angels 
do ; and yet it would not have been necessary on that account 
for the Son of God to become either a man or an angel. Nor 
has he any cause to fear this absurdity, that if God had not 
immutably decreed, before the creation of man, that Christ 
should be born, not as a Redeemer, but as the first man, he 
might lose his prerogative ; whereas now he would not have 
become incarnate but for an accidental cause, that is, to re- 
store mankind from ruin; so that he might thence infer, that 
Christ was created after the image of Adam. For why should 
he dread, what the Scripture so plainly teaches, that he 
was made like us in all things, sin excepted ? (kK) whence also 
Luke hesitates not in his genealogy to call him “ the son of 
Adam.” (2) I would also wish to know why Paul styles Christ 
“the second Adam,’’ (mm) but because he was destined to be- 
come man, in order to extricate the posterity of Adam from 
ruin. If he sustained that capacity before the creation, he 
ought to have been called “the first Adam.” Osiander boldly 
affirms, that because Christ was already foreknown as man in 
the Divine mind, therefore men were formed in his likeness. 
But Paul, by denominating him ‘the second Adam,” places 
the fall, whence arises the necessity of restoring our nature to 
its primitive condition, in an intermediate point between the 
first original of mankind and the restitution which we obtain 
through Christ ; whence it follows that the fall was the cause 
of the incarnation of the Son of God. Now, Osiander argues 
unreasonably and impertinently, that while Adam retained his 
integrity, he would be the image of himself, and not of Christ. 
On the contrary, I reply, that although the Son of God had 
never been incarnate, both the body and the soul of man 
would equally have displayed the image of God; in whose 


(t) Col. in. 10 (k) Heb. iv. 15, (1) Luke iii. 88. (m) 1 Cor. xv. 45, 47 


5 a ie 


CHAP. xt] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. AQT 


radiance it always appeared, that Christ was truly the head, 
possessing the supremacy over all. And thus we destroy that 
futile subtilty raised by Osiander, that the angels would have 
been destitute of this head, unless God had decreed to clothe 
his Son with flesh, even without any transgression of Adam. 
For he too inconsiderately takes for granted, what no wise 
man will concede, that Christ has no supremacy over anyels, 
and that he is not their Prince, except in his human nature. 
But we may easily conclude, from the language of Paul, that, 


‘as the eternal Word of God, he is “the first-born of every 


creature ;’’(m) not that he was created, or ought to be num- 
bered among creatures, but because the holy state of the 
world, adorned as it was at the beginning with consummate 
beauty, had no other author; and that afterwards, as man, he 
was ‘the first begotten from the dead.’”’ For in one short 
passage he proposes to our consideration both these points — 
that all things were created by the Son, that he might have 
dominion over angels; and that he was made-man, that he 
might become our Redeemer. (0) Another proof of Osiander’s 
ignorance is his assertion, that men would not have had Christ 
for their King, if he had not been incarnate ; as though the 
kingdom of God could not subsist, if the eternal Son of God, 
without being invested with humanity, uniting angels and men 
in the participation of his glorious life, had himself held the su- 


preme dominion! But he is always deceived, or rather bewil- 


ders himself, in this false principle, that the Church would have 
been destitute of a head, if Christ had not been manifested in 
the flesh; as if, while he was head over angels, he could not 
likewise by his Divine power preside over men, and by the 
secret energy of his Spirit animate and support them, like his 
own body, till they should be exalted to heaven, and enjoy the 
life of angels! ‘These impertinencies, which I have thus far 
refuted, Osiander esteems as incontrovertible oracles. Inebria- 
ted by the charms of his own speculations, he is accustomed 
to express himself in the language of ridiculous triumph, with- 
out any sufficient cause. But he quotes one passage more, 
which he asserts to be conclusive beyond all the rest ; that is, 
the prophecy of Adam, who, when he saw his wife, said, 
“This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh.” (p) 
But how does he prove this to be a prophecy ? Because Christ, 
according to Matthew, attributes the same language to God; 
as though every thing that God has spoken by men contained 
some prophecy! 'Then Osiander may seek for prophecies in 
each of the precepts of the law, of which it is evident God 
was the author. Besides, Christ would have been a low and 
grovelling expositor, if he had confined himself to the literal 


(n) Col. i. 15. (0) Col. i. 16, 18. (p) Gen. ii. 23. 


428 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK I, 


sense. Because he is treating, not of the mystical union, with 
which he has honoured his Church, but only of conjugal 
fidelity ; he informs us, that God had pronounced a husband 
and wife to be one flesh, that no one might attempt by a 
divorce to violate that indissoluble bond. If Osiander be dis- 
pleased with this simplicity, let him censure Christ, because 
he did not conduct his disciples to a mystery, by amore subtile 
interpretation of the language of the Father. Nor does his 
delirious imagination obtain any support from Paul, who, after 
having said that.‘‘we are members of Christ’s flesh,’ imme- 
diately adds, “this is a great mystery.” (q) For the apostle’s 
design was, not to explain the sense in which Adam’ spoke, 
but, under the figure and similitude of marriage, to display the 
sacred union which makes us one with Christ. And this is 
implied in his very words; for when he apprizes us that he is 
speaking of Christ and the Church, he introduces a kind of 
correction to distinguish between the law of marriage and 
the spiritual.union of Christ and the Church. Wherefore 
this futile notion appears destitute of any solid foundation. 
Nor do I think there will be any necessity for me to discuss 
similar subtilties ; since the vanity of them all will be dis- 
covered from the foregoing very brief refutation. But this 
sober declaration will be amply sufficient for the solid satis- 
faction of the children of God; that ‘“ when the fulness of the 
time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, 
made under the law, to redeem them that were under the 
law.” (7) 


CHAPTER XIIL 


CHRIST’S ASSUMPTION OF REAL HUMANITY , 


THE arguments for the Divinity of Christ, which has already 
been proved by clear and irrefragable testimonies, it would, I 
conceive, be unnecessary to reiterate. It remains, then, for us 
to examine, how, after having been invested with our flesh, he 
has performed the office of a Mediator. Now, the reality of his 
humanity was anciently opposed by the Manicheans and by 
the Marcionites. Of whom the latter imagined to themselves 
a visionary phantom instead of the body of Christ; and the 
former dreamed that he had a celestial body. But both these 
notions are contrary to numerous and powerful testimonies of 


q) Eph. v. 30, 32. r) Gal. iv. 4. 
Dh FP 


=. 


CHAP. XIII] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. A2QZ 


Scripture. For the blessing is promised, neither in a heavenly 
seed, nor in a phantom of a man, but in the seed of Abraham 
and Jacob ; nor is the eternal throne promised to an aérial man, 
but to the Son of David and the fruit of his loins. (s) Where- 
fore, on his manifestation in the flesh, he is called the Son of 
David and of Abraham, not because he was merely born of the 
virgin after having heen formed of some aérial substance ; but 
because, according to Paul, he was ‘‘ made of the seed of David 
according to the flesh;’’ as the same apostle in another place 
informs us, that “‘according to the flesh’? he descended from 
the Jews. (t) Wherefore the Lord himself, not content with 


the appellation of man, frequently calls himself also the Son of 


Man —a term which he intended as a more express declaration 
of his real humanity. As the Holy Spirit has on so many 
occasions, by so many instruments, and with such great dili- 
gence and simplicity, declared a fact by no means abstruse in 
itself, who could have supposed that any mortals would have 
such consummate impudence as to dare to obscure it with sub- 
tilties? But more testimonies offer themselves, if we wished 
to multiply them; such as: this of Paul, that “God sent forth 
his Son made of a woman ;” (w) and innumerable others, from 
which he appears to have been liable to hunger, thirst, cold, 
and other infirmities of our nature. But from the multitude 
we must chiefly select those, which may conduce to the edifi- 
cation of our minds in true faith; as when it is said, that ‘he 
took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him 
the seed of Abraham; ” that he took flesh and blood, “that 
through death he might destroy him that had the power of 
death ;”” for which cause he is not ashamed to call them bre- 
thren ; that ‘‘in all things it behoved him to be made like unto 
his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high 
priest ;”’ that “we have not a high priest which cannot be 
touched with the feeling of our infirmities ;” (x) and the like. 
To the same purpose is what we have just before mentioned, 
that it was necessary for the sins of the world to be expiated 
in our flesh; which is clearly asserted by Paul.(y) And cer- 


tainly all that the Father has conferred on Christ, belongs to 


us, because he “‘is the head, from whom the whole body is 
fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every 
joint supplieth.” (z) There will otherwise be no propriety in 
the declaration, ‘that God giveth the Spirit not by measure 
unto him, that we may all receive of his fulness; (a) since 
nothing would be more absurd, than that God should be en- 


(s) Gen. xii.3; xviii. 18; xxii.18; xxvi.4. Actsiii.25; 11.30. Psalmexxxii. 11. 
Matt. i. 1. 
(t) Rom. i. 3; ix. 5. (u) Gal. iv. 4. (z) Heb. ii. 14, 16,17; iv. 15 
(y) Rom, viii. 3. (z) Eph. iv. 15, 16 (a) John iii. 34; i. 16. 


* 


430. INSTITUTES OF THE  [Boox m1, 


riched in his essence by any adventitious gift. For this reason. 


also Christ himself says in another place, “ For their sakes I 
sanctify myself. ” (b) 

II. The passages which they adduce in confirmation of this 
error, they most foolishly pervert ; nor do their frivolous sub- 
tilties at all avail them in their endeavours to obviate the 
arguments which I have advanced in defence of our sentiments. 
Marcion imagines that Christ invested himself with a phantom 
mstead of a real body; because he is said to have been “made 
in the lkeness of men,’ and to have been “ found in fashion 
as a man.” (c) But in drawing this conclusion, he totally 
overlooks the scope of Paul in that passage. For his design 
is, not to describe the nature of the body which Christ as- 
sumed, but to assert that whilst he might have displayed his 
Divinity, he manifested himself in the condition of an abject 


and despised man. For, to exhort us to humility by the ex- 


ample of Christ, he shows, that being God, he might have in- 
stantaneously made a conspicuous exhibition of his glory to the 
world; yet that he receded from his right, and voluntarily de- 
based himself, for that he assumed’the form of a servant, and 
content with that humble station, suffered his Divinity to be 
hidden behind the veil of humanity. The subject of this 
statement, without doubt, is not the nature of Christ, but his 
conduct. From the whole context also it is easy to infer, that 
Christ humbled himself by the assumption of a real human na- 
ture. For what is the meaning of this clause, “that he was 
found in fashion as a man,” but that for a time his Divine glory 
was invisible, and nothing appeared but the human form, in a 
mean and abject condition? For otherwise there would be no 
foundation for this assertion of Peter, that he was “ put to 
death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit,” (d) if the Son 
of God had not been subject to the infirmities of human nature. 
This is more plainly expressed by Paul, when he says, that 
‘““he was crucified through weakness.” (e) 'The same is con- 
firmed by his exaltation, because he is positively asserted to 
have obtained a new glory after his humiliation; which could 
only be applicable to a real man composed of body and soul. 
Manicheus fabricates for Christ an aérial body ; because he is 
called “the second Adam, the Lord from heaven.” (f) But 
the apostle in that place is not speaking of a celestial corporeal 
essence, but of a spiritual energy, which, being diffused from 
Christ, raises us into life. That energy we have already seen 
that Peter and Paul distinguish from his body. The orthodox 
doctrine, therefore, concerning the body of Christ, is firmly es- 


(6) John xvii. 19. (c) Phil. ii. 7, 8. (d) 1 Peter iii. 18. 
(e) 2 Cor. xiii. 4. (f) 1 Cor. xv. 47. 


cHAP. xim. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. A31 


tablished by this very passage. .For unless Christ had the 
same corporeal nature with us, there would be no force in the 
argument which Paul so vehemently urges, that if Christ be 
risen from the dead, then we also shall rise ; that if we rise not, 
neither is Christ risen.(g) Of whatever cavils either the an- 
cient Manicheans, or their modern disciples, endeavour to avail 
themselves, they cannot succeed. Their nugatory pretence 
that Christ is called “the Son of man,” because he was _ pro- 
mised to men, is a vain subterfuge ; for it is.evident that in the 
Hebrew idiom, the Son of man is a phrase expressive of a real 
man. And Christ undoubtedly retaimed the phraseology of his 
own language. ‘There is no room for disputing what is meant 
by the sons of Adam. And not to go any further; it will 
be fully sufficient to quote a passage in the eighth psalm 
which the apostles apply to Christ: ‘‘ What is man, that thou 
art mindful of him, or the son of man, that thou visitest him?” 
This phrase expresses the true humanity of Christ; because, 
though he was not immediately begotten by a mortal father, 
yet his descent was derived from Adam. Nor would there 
otherwise be any truth in what we have just quoted, that 
Christ became a partaker of flesh and blood, that he might 
bring many sons to glory —language which clearly styles him 
to be a partaker of the same common nature with us. In the 
same sense the apostle says, that ‘both he that sanctifieth and 
they who are sanctified are all of one.”? For the context proves 
that this refers to a community of nature ; because he immedi- 
ately adds, ‘‘for which cause he is not ashamed to call them 
brethren.” (h) For if he had already said that the faithful are 
of God, what reason could Jesus Christ have to be ashamed of 
such great dignity? But because Christ, of his infinite grace, 
associates himself with those who are vile and contemptible, it 
is therefore said that he is not ashamed. It is a vain objection 
which they make, that on this principle the impious will be- 
come the brethren of Christ; because we know that the chil- 
dren of God are born, not of flesh and blood, but of the Spirit 
through faith; therefore a community of nature alone is not 
sufficient to constitute a fraternal union. But though it is 
only to the faithful that the apostle assigns the honour of being 
one with Christ, yet it does not follow that unbelievers are not, 
according to the flesh, born of the same original; as, when we 
say that Christ was made man, to make us children of God, 
this expression extends not to all men; because faith is the 
medium by which we are spiritually ingrafted into the body of 
Christ. They likewise raise a foolish contention respecting 
the appellation of first-born. They plead that Christ ought to 


(g) 1 Cor. xv. 13, 14. (h) Heb. ii. 10, 11, 14 


432, INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK I. 


have been.born at the beginning, immediately of Adam, in 
order ‘‘that he might be the first-born among many bre- 
thren.”’ (7) But the primogeniture attributed to him refers not 
to age, but to the degree of honour and the eminence of power 
which he enjoys. Nor is there any more plausibility in their 
notion, that Christ is said to have assumed the nature of man, 
and not of angels, because he received the human race into his 
favour. For the apostle, to magnify the honour with which 
Christ has favoured us, compares us with the angels, before 
whom in this respect we are preferred. (4) And if the testi- 
mony of Moses be duly considered, where he says that the 
Seed of the woman shall bruise the head of the serpent, (7) it 
will decide the whole controversy. For that prediction relates 
not to Christ alone, but to the whole human race. Because 
the victory was to be gained for us by Christ, God pronounces, 
in general, that the posterity of the woman should be superior to 
the devil. Whence it follows, that Christ descended from the 
human race; because the design of God, in that promise to 
Eve, was to comfort her with a good hope, that she might not 
be overcome with sorrow. 

III. Those passages, where Christ is called “‘the seed of 
Abraham,” and “the fruit of the body of David,” they with 
equal folly and wickedness involve in allegories. For if the 
word seed had been used in an allegorical sense, Paul certainly 
would not have been silent respecting it, where, without any 
figure, he explicitly affirms, that there are not many sons of 
Abraham who are Redeemers, but Christ alone.(m) Equally 
unfounded is their notion, that Christ is called the Son of 
David in no other sense, but because he had been promised, 
and was at length manifested in due time. For after Paul has 
declared him to have been ‘made of the seed of David,” the 
immediate addition of this phrase, ‘according to the flesh, ”” (n) 
is certainly a designation of nature. ‘Thus also in another 
place he calls him ‘‘God blessed for ever,” and distinctly states 
that he descended from the Jews ‘‘as concerning the flesh.” (0) 
Now, if he was not really begotten of the seed of David, what 
is the meaning of this expression, “ the fruit of his loins?” (p) 
What becomes of this promise, “Of the fruit of thy body will 
Iset upon thy throne?” (q) ‘They likewise trifle in a sophisti- 
cal manner with the genealogy of Christ, as it is given by 
Matthew. For though he mentions the parents of Joseph, and 
not of Mary, yet as he was treating of a thing then generally 
known, he thought it sufficient to show that Joseph descended 
from the seed of David, while there could be no doubt that 


(7) Rom. viii. 29. (1) Gen. iii. 15. (m) Rom.i. 3. — (p) Acts ii. mi) 
(k) Heb. ii. 16. (m) Gal. iii.16. (0) Rom. ix.5.  (q) Psalm exxxii. 11. 


CHAP. XIII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 433 


Mary was of the same family. But Luke goes further, with a 
view to signify, that the salvation procured by Christ is com- 
mon to all mankind; since Christ, the author of salvation, is 
descended from Adam, the common parent of all. I grant, 
indeed, that from the genealogy it cannot be inferred that 
Christ is the Son of David, any otherwise than as he was born 
of the Virgin. But the modern Marcionites, to give a plausi- 
bility to their error, that Christ derived his body from nothing, 
contend that women have no generative semen ; and thus they 
subvert the elements of nature. But as this is not a theologi- 
cal question, and the arguments which they adduce are so futile 
that there will be no difficulty in repelling them, I shall not 
meddle with points belonging to philosophy and the medical 
art. It will be sufficient for me to obviate the objection 
which they allege from the Scripture, namely, that Aaron 
and Jehoiada married wives of the tribe of Judah; and thus, 
if women contain generative semen, the distinction of tribes 
was confounded. But it is sufficiently known, that, for the 
purposes of political regulation, the posterity is always reck- 
oned from the father; yet that the superiority of the male sex 
forms no objection to the cooperation of the female semen 
in the process of generation. ‘This solution extends to all the 
genealogies. Frequently, when the Scripture exhibits a cata- 
logue of names, it mentions none but men; is it therefore to 
be concluded that women are nothing? Even children them- 
selves know that women are comprehended under their hus- 
bands. For this reason women are said to bear children to 
their husbands, because the name of the family always remains 
with the males. Now, as it is a privilege conceded to the 
superiority of the male sex, that children should be accounted 
noble or ignoble, according to the condition 6f their fathers, so, 
on the other hand, it is held by the lawyers, that in a state of 
slavery the offspring follows the condition of the mother. 
Whence we may infer, that the offspring is produced partly 
from the seed of the mother; and the common language of all 
nations implies that mothers have some share in the generation 
of children. This is in harmony with the Divine law, which 
otherwise would have no ground for the prohibition of the 
marriage of an uncle with his sister’s daughter; because in 
that case there would be no consanguinity. ‘It would also be 
lawful for a man to marry his uterine sister, provided she were 
begotten by another father. But while I grant that a passive 
power is ascribed to women, | also maintain that the same that 
is affirmed of men is indiscriminately predicated of them. Nor 
is Christ himself said to be ‘‘made”’ by a woman, but “of a 
woman.” (7) Some of these persons, casting off all modesty, 
| (r) Gal. iv. 4. 
VOL. I. 55 


A434 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK. 1. 


impudently inquire, whether we choose to say that Christ 
‘was procreated from the menstrual seed of the Virgin. I 
will inquire, on the other hand, whether he was not united 
with the blood of his mother ; ‘and this they must be con- 
strained to confess. It is properly inferred, therefore, from 
the language of Matthew, that inasmuch as Christ was begot- 
ten of Mary, (s) he was procreated from her seed; as when 
Booz is said to have been begotten of Rahab, (t) it denotes a 
similar generation. Nor is it the design of Matthew here to de- 
scribe the Virgim-as a tube through which Christ passed, but 
to discriminate this miraculous conception from ordinary gen- 
eration, in that Jesus Christ. was generated of the seed of 
David by means of a Virgin. In the same sense, and for the 
same reason that Isaac is said to have been begotten of Abra- 
ham, Solomon of: David, and Joseph of Jacob, so Christ is said 
to have been begotten of his mother. For the evangelist has 
written the whole of his account upon this principle; and te 
prove that Christ descended from David, he has contentall 
himself with this one fact, that he was "begotten of Mary. 
Whence it follows, that he took for granted the consanguinity 
of Mary and Joseph. 

IV. The absurdities, with which these opponents wish to 
press us, are replete with puerile cavils. They esteem it mean 
and dishonourable to Christ, that he should derive his descent 


7” 


from men; because he could not be exempt from the universal: 


law, which concludes all the posterity of Adam, without excep- 
tion, under sin.(v) But the antithesis, which we find in Paul, 
easily solves this difficulty: ‘“‘ As by one man sin entered into 
the world, and death by sin, even so by the righteousness of 
one, the grace of God hath abounded.” (w) ‘To this the fol- 
lowing passage corresponds: ‘The first man is of the earth, 
earthy ; the second man is the Lord from heaven.” (x) There- 
fore the same apostle, in another place, by teaching us that 
Christ was “‘ sent in the likeness of sinful flesh’ (y) to satisfy 
the law, expressly distinguishes him from the common,condition 
of mankind ; so that he is a real man, and yet free from all 


fault and corruption. They betray their ignorance in arguing — 


that, if Christ is perfectly immaculate, and was begotten of 
‘the seed of Mary, by the secret operation of the Spirit, then it 
follows that there is no impurity in the seed of women, but 
only in that of men. For we do not represent Christ as per- 
fectly immaculate, merely because he was born of the seed of 
a woman unconnected with any man, but because he was sanc- 
tified by the Spirit, so that his generation was pure and holy, 
such as it would have been before the fall of Adam. And it 
(s) Matt. 1. 16. e& i¢ eyerrn9n ?Iyoove. 


(t) Matt. 1.5. Saipwy de eyevryoe tov Boot ex tye ‘Payas. ' 
‘v) Gal. iii. 22. (w) Rom. v. 12,15,18. (x) 1 Cor. xv. 47. (y) Rom. viii. 3. 


CHAP. XIV. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. ABD 


is a fixed maxim with us, that whenever the Scripture men- 
tions the purity of Christ, it relates to a real humanity ; be- 
cause to assert the purity of Deity would be quite unnecessary. 
The sanctification, also, of which he speaks in the seventeenth 
chapter of John,(z) could have no reference to the Divine 
nature. Nor do we, as they pretend, imagine two kinds of 
seed in Adam, notwithstanding Christ was free from all con- 
tagion. For the generation of man is not naturally and - 
originally impure and corrupt, but only accidentally so, in 
consequence of the fall. Therefore we need not wonder, that 
Christ, who was to restore our integrity, was exempted from 
the general corruption. But what they urge on us as an ab- 
surdity, that if the Word of God was clothed with flesh, it was 
therefore confined within the narrow prison of an earthly body, 
is mere impudence ; because, although the infinite essence of 
the Werd is united in one person with the nature of man, yet 
we have no idea of its incarceration or confinement. ;F or the 
Son of God miraculously descended from heaven, yet in such 
a manner that he never left heaven; he chose to be mira- 
culously conceived in the womb of the Virgin, to live on the 
earth, and to be suspended on the cross; and yet he never 
ceased to fill the universe, in the same manner as from the be- 
ginning. 


CHAPTER XIV. 


THE UNION OF THE TWO NATURES CONSTITUTING THE PERSON 
OF THE MEDIATOR. 


Wuen it is said that “the Word was made flesh,” (a) this is 
not to be understood as if the Word was transmuted into flesh, 
or blended with flesh. Choosing from the womb of the Virgin 
a temple for his residence, he who was the Son of God, be- 
came also the Son of man, not by a confusion of substance, 
but by a unity of person. For we assert such a connection 
and union of the Divinity with the humanity, that each nature 
retains its properties entire, and yet both together constitute 
one Christ. If any thing among men can be found to resemble 
so great a mystery, man himself appears to furnish the most 
apposite similitude; being evidently composed of two sub- 
stances, of which, however, neither is so confounded with the 
other, as not to retain its distinct nature. For the soul is not 


(z) John xvii. 19. fa) John i. 14. 


4.36 INSTITUTES OF THE | [BooK 11. 


the body, nor is the body the soul. Wherefore that is pre- 
dicated separately of the soul, which cannot be at all applied 
to the body. On the contrary, that is predicated of the body, 
which is totally incompatible with the soul. And that is pre. 
dicated of the whole man, which cannot with propriety be 
understood either of the soul or of the body alone. Lastly, 
the properties of the soul are transferred to the body, and the 
properties of the body to the soul ; yet he that is composed of 
these two parts is no more than one man. Such forms of ex- 
pression signify that there is in man one person composed of 
two distinct parts; and that there are two different natures 
united in him to constitute that one person. The Scriptures 
speak in a similar manner respecting Christ. ‘They attribute 
to him, sometimes those things which are applicable merely to 
his humanity ; sometimes those things which belong peculiarly 
to his Divinity ; and not unfrequently those things which com- 
prehend both his natures, but are incompatible with either of 
them alone. And this union of the two natures in Christ they 
so carefully maintain, that they sometimes attribute to one 
what belongs to the other —a mode of expression which the 
ancient writers called a communication of properties. 

II. These things might be liable to objection, if the Scripture 
did not abound with passages, which prove that none of them 
is of human invention. What Christ asserted concerning him- 
self, ‘‘ Before Abraham was, I am,’’(6) was very inapplicable 
to his humanity. Iam aware of the cavil with which erro- 
neous spirits would corrupt this passage, — that he was before 
all ages, because he was even then foreknown as the Re- 
deemer, as well in the decree of the Father, as in the minds 
of the faithful. But as he clearly distinguishes the day of his 
manifestation from his eternal essence, and professedly urges 
his antiquity, in proof of his possessing an authority in which 
he excels Abraham, there is no doubt that he challenges to 
himself what is peculiar to the Deity. Paul asserts him to be 
‘the first-born of every creature, that he is before all things, 
and that by him all things consist: ”(c) he declares himself, 
that he “had a glory with the Father before the world 
was,’”’(d) and that he codperates with the Father.(e) These 
things are equally incompatible with humanity. It is certain 
that these, and such as these, are peculiar attributes of Divi- 
nity. But when he is called the “ servant ” of the Father ; (f) 
when ‘it is stated that he “increased in wisdom and stature, 
and in favour with God and man;” (g) that he seeks not his 
own glory ; that he knows not the last day; that he speaks 
not of himself; that he does not his own will; that he was 


(b) John viii. 58. (d) John xvii. 5. (f) Isaiah xlii. 1, 
(c) Col. i. 15. (e) John v. 17. (g) Luke ii. 52. 


CHAP. Xiv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 437 


seen and handled ; (/) all this belongs solely to his humanity. 
For as he is God, he is incapable of any augmentation what- 
ever ; he does all things for his own glory, and there is nothing 
concealed from him ; he does all things according to the de- 
cision of his own will, and is invisible and intangible. And 
yet he ascribes these things not to his human nature separate- 
ly, but to himself, as though they belonged to the person of 
the Mediator. But the communication of properties is exem- 
plified in the assertion of Paul that ‘“‘God purchased the 
Church with his own blood,” (¢) and that ‘the Lord of glory ” 
was “crucified.” (k) Also in what John says, that they had 
“handled the Word of life.” (2) God has no blood ; he is not 
capable of suffering, or of being touched with hands; but since 
he, who was at once the true God and the man Christ Jesus, 
was crucified and shed his blood for us, those things which 
were performed in his human nature are improperly, yet not 
without reason, transferred to the Divinity. There is a simi- 
lar example of this, where John teaches us, that “God laid 
down his life for us.’’(m) There also the property of the 
humanity is transferred to the other nature. Again, when 
Christ, while he still lived on the earth, said, ‘‘ No man hath 
ascended up to heaven, but he that came down f-om heaven, 
even the Son of man which is in heaven :” (2) as man, and in 
the body which he had assumed, he certainly was not at that 
time in heaven, but because he was both God and man, on 
account of the union of both natures, he attributed to one 
what belonged to the other. 

III. But the clearest of all the passages declarative of the 
true substance of Christ are those which comprehend both the 
natures together; such as abound in the Gospel of John. For 
it is not with exclusive reference tothe Deity or the humanity, 
but respecting the complex person composed of both, that we 
find it there stated ; that he has received of the Father power 
to forgive sins, to raise up whom he will, to bestow righteous- 
ness, holiness, and salvation; that he is appointed to be the 
Judge of the living and the dead, that he may receive the 
same honour as the Father ; (0) finally, that he is ‘“ the light of 
the world,” “the good shepherd,” ‘the only door,” ‘the true 
vine.” (p) For with such prerogatives was the Son of God invest- 
ed. at his manifestation in the flesh ; which although he enjoyed 
with the Father before the creation of the world, yet not in the 
same manner or on the same account; and which could not be 
conferred on amere man. In the same sense also it is reasonable 
to understand the declaration of Paul, that after the last judgment 


(h) John viii. 50. Mark xiii. 32. John xiv. 10; vi. 38. Luke xxiv. 39. 
(?) Acts xx. 28. (k) 1 Cor. ii. 8. (/) 1 John i. 1. (m) 1 John iii. 16. 
(n) John iii. 13. (0) John i. 29; v. 21—23. (p) John ix.5; x. 9,11; xv. 1 


> 


; ™ 


438 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 14 


Christ “‘shall deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Fa- 
ther.” (q¢) Now, the kingdom of the Son of God, which had no 
beginning, will never have any end. But as he concealed him- 
self under the meanness of the flesh, and humbled himself by assu- 
ming the form of a servant, and laid aside his external majesty in 
obedience to the Father,(7) and after having undergone this 
humiliation, was at length crowned with glory and honour, and 
exalted to supreme dominion, (s) that before him ‘every knee 
should bow ;” (¢) so he shall then surrender to the Father that 
name and crown of glory, and all that he has received from 
the Father, “that God may be all in all.’”’(w) For why 
has power and dominion been given to him, but that the — 
Father may rule us by his hand? In this sense he is also — 
said to sit at the right hand of the Father. But this is only 
temporary, till we can enjoy the immediate contemplation 
of the Deity. And here it is impossible to excuse the error 
of the ancients, who, for want of sufficient attention to 
the person of the Mediator, obscure the genuine sense of 
almost all the doctrine which we have in the Gospel of John, 
and involve themselves in many difficulties. Let this maxim, 
then, serve us as a key to the true sense, that those things 
which relate to the office of the Mediator, are not spoken 
simply of his Divine or of his human nature. Christ there- 
fore will reign, till he comes to judge the world, forasmuch 
as he connects us with the Father as far as is compatible with 
our infirmity. But when we shall participate the glory of 
heaven, and see God as he is, then, having fulfilled the office 
of Mediator, he will cease to be the ambassador of the Father, 
and will be content with that glory which he enjoyed before 
the creation of the world. Nor is the title of Lord peculiarly 
applied to the person of Christ in any other respect, than as it 
marks an intermediate station between God and us. ‘This is 
the meaning of that expression of Paul, “ One God, of whom 
are all things; and one Lord, by whom are all things; (w) 
namely, to whom the Father has committed a temporary do- 
minion, till we shall be admitted to the immediate presence of 
his Divine majesty ; which will be so far from sustaining any 
diminution by his surrender of the kingdom to the Father, that 
it will exhibit itself in far superior splendour. For then also 
God will cease to be the head of Christ, because the Deity of 
Christ himself, which is still covered with a veil, will shine 
forth in all its native effulgence. 

IV. And this observation, if the reader make a . fadibieds 
application of it, will be of great use towards the solution of 
many difficulties. For it 1s surprising how much ignorant 


(q) 1 Cor. xv. 24. (s) Heb. ii. 7. (wu) 1 Cor. xv. 28. 
(7) Phil. ii. 8. (t) Phil. ii. 10. (w) 1 Cor, viii. 6. 


CHAP. XIV. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. ABI 


persons, and even some who are not altogether destitute of 
learning, are perplexed by such forms of expression, as they 
find attributed to Christ, which are not exactly appropriate 
either to his Divinity or to his humanity. This is for waut of 
considering that they are applicable to his complex person, con- 
sisting of God and man, and to his office of Mediator. And 
indeed we may see the most beautiful coherence between all 
these things, if they have only a sober expositor, to examine 
such great mysteries with becoming reverence. But these fu- 
rious and frantic spirits throw every thing into confusion. 
They lay hold of the properties of his humanity, to destroy 
his Divinity; on the other hand, they catch at the attributes 
of his Divinity, to destroy his humanity ; and by what is spo- 
ken of both natures united, but is applicable separately to 
neither, they attempt to destroy both. Now, what is this but 
to contend that Christ is not man, because he is God; that he 
is not God, because he is man; and that he is neither man nor 
God, because he is at once both man and God? We conclude, 
therefore, that Christ, as he is God and man, composed of these 
two natures united, yet not confounded, is our Lord and the 
true Son of God, even in his humanity ; though not on ac- 
count of his humanity. For we ought carefully to avoid the 
error of Nestorius, who, attempting rather to divide than to. 
distinguish the two natures, thereby imagined a double Christ. 
This we find clearly contradicted by the Scripture, where the 
appellation of “the Son of God” is given to him who was 
born of the Virgin, and the Virgin herself is called “the mo- 
ther of our Lord.” (z) We must also beware of the error of © 
Kutyches, lest while we aim to establish the unity of Christ’s 
person, we destroy the distinction of his two natures. For we 
have already cited so many testimonies, where his Divinity is 
distinguished from his humanity, and the Scripture abounds 
with so many others, that they may silence even the most con- 
tentious. I shall shortly subjoin some, in order to a more 
complete refutation of that notion. At present one passage 
shall suffice us; for Christ would not have styled his body ‘a 
temple,’ (y) if it had not been the residence of the Divinity, 
and at the same time distinct from it. . Wherefore, as Nestorius 
was justly condemned in the council of Ephesus, so also was 
Kutyches afterwards in the councils of Constantinople and 
_ Chalcedon ; for to confound the two natures in Christ, and to 
separate them, are equally wrong. 

VY. But in our time also there has arisen a heretic equally 
pestilent, Michael Servetus, who in the place of the Son of 
God has substituted an imaginary being composed of the 


(x) Luke i. 35, 43. (y) John ii, 19. 


440 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 11 


essence of God, spirit, flesh, and three uncreated elements. 
In the first place, he denies Christ to be the Son of God, 
in any other respect than as he was begotten by the Holy 
Spirit in the womb of the Virgin. But his subtlety tends 
to subvert the distinction of the two natures, and thereby to 
represent Christ as something composed of God and man, 
aud yet neither God nor man. For this is the principal 
point which he constantly endeavours to establish, that be- 
fore Christ was manifested in the flesh, there were in God 
only some shadowy figures; the truth or effect of which had 
no real existence till the Word, who had been destined to this 
honour, actually began to be the Son of God. Now, we con- 
fess that the Mediator, who was born of the Virgin, is pro- 
perly the Son of God. Nor indeed could the man Christ be 
a mirror of the inestimable grace of God, if this dignity had 
not been conferred on him, to be, and to be called, “the 
only begotten Son of God.” The doctrine of the Church, 
however, remains unshaken, that he is aceounted the Son 
of God, because, being the Word begotten by the Father be- 
fore all ages, he assumed the human nature in a hypostatical 
union. By the “ hypostatical union” the ancrents expressed 
the combination of two natures constituting one person. It 
was invented to refute the error of Nestorius, who imagined 
the Son of God to have dwelt in flesh in such @ manner 
as, notwithstanding that, to have had no real humanity. 
Servetus falsely accuses us of making two Sons of God, 
when we say that the eternal Word was the Son of God, 
before he was clothed with flesh; as though we affirmed 
any other than that he was manifested im the flesh: For if 
he was God before he became man, it is not to be inferred 
that he began to be a new God. ‘There is no more absur- 
dity in affirming that the Son of God appeared in the flesh, 
who nevertheless was always the Son of God by eternal 
generation. ‘This is implied in the words of the angel to 
Mary: “That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall 
be called the Son of God;’(z) as though he had said, that 
the name of the Son, which had been in obscurity under the 
law, was about to be «celebrated and wniversally known. 
Consistent with this is the representation of Paul; that 
through Christ we are the sons of God, and may freely and 
confidently cry, Abba, Father.(a) But were not the holy 
patriarchs in ancient times numbered among the children of 
God? Yes; and depending on this claim, they invoked God 
as their Father. But because, since the introduction of the 
only begotten Son of God into the world, the celestial pa- 
{ernity has been more clearly revealed, Paul mentions this 


(z) Luke i. 35. (a) Rom. viii. 15. Gal. iv. 5, 6 


CHAP. XiIv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 4A] 


as the privilege of the kingdom of Christ. It must, however, 
be steadily maintained, that God never was a Father, either 
to angels or to men, but with reference to his only begotten 
Son; and especially that men, whom their own iniquity 
renders odious to God, are his sons by gratuitous adoption, 
because Christ is his Son by nature. Nor is there any force 
in the cavil of Servetus, that this depends on the filiation 
which God has decreed in himself; because we are not here 
treating of figures, as expiation was represented by the blood 
of the sacrifices: but as they could not be the sons of God in 
reality, unless their adoption were founded on this head, it is 
unreasonable to detract from the head, that which is common 
to all the members. I go further: since the Scripture calls an- 
gels “the children of God,” (b) whose enjoyment of such high 
dignity depended not on the future redemption, yet it is ne- 
cessary that Christ should precede them in order, seeing it is 
by him that they are connected with the Father. I will brief- 
ly repeat this observation, and apply the same to the human 
race. Since angels and men were originally created in such a 
condition, that God was the common Father of both, if there 
be any truth in the assertion of Paul, “that Christ was before 
all things, the head of the body, and the first-born of every 
creature, that in all things he might have the preeminence,” (c) 
I conceive I am right in concluding, that he was also the Son 
of God before the creation of the world. 

VI. But if his filiation (so to speak) commenced at the time 
of his manifestation in the flesh, it will follow that he was the 
Son also in respect of his human nature. Servetus and other 
heretics maintain that Christ, who appeared in the flesh, was 
the Son of God; because out of the flesh he could not be enti- 
tled to this appellation. Now, let them answer me, whether he be 
the Son according to both natures, and in respect of both. So 
indeed they idly pretend; but Paul teaches us very differently. 
We confess that Christ is called “the Son” in his human 
nature, not as the faithful are, merely by adoption and grace, 
but the true and natural, and therefore the only Son; that by 
this character he may be distinguished from all others. For 
we, who are regenerated to a new life, are honoured by God 
with the title of sons; but the appellation of “his true and 
only begotten Son” he gives to Christ alone. But among 
such a multitude of brethren, how can he be the only Son. 
unless he possess by nature what we have received as a gift? 
And we extend this honour to the whole person of the Media-, 
tor, that he who was born of the Virgin, and offered himself 
on the cross as a victim to the Father, is truly and properly 


(6) Psalm Ixxxii. 6. (c) Col. i. 15—18. 
VOL. I. 50 


AA2 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK 11, 


the Son of God; but nevertheless with respect to his Deity, as 
Paul suggests, when he says that he was “separated unto the 
gospel of God, which he had promised afore, concerning his 
Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of 
David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of 
God with power.” (d) When he distinctly denominates him 
the Son of David according to the flesh, why should he parti- 
cularly say that he was declared to be the Son of God with 
power, unless he intended to suggest that this dignity depend- 
ed not on that flesh, but on something else?) For in the same 
sense in which he says in another place that ‘‘he was cruci- 
fied through weakness, yet that he liveth by the power of 
God,” so in this passage he introduces the difference between 
the two natures. ‘They certainly must be constrained to admit, 
that as he has received of his mother that which causes him to 
be called the Son of David, so he has from his Father that which 
constitutes him the Son of God, and that this is something dis- 
tinct and different from his humanity. ‘The Scripture distin- 
suishes him by two names, calling him sometimes ‘ the Son of 
God,” sometimes ‘the Son of man.’”’ With respect to the lat- 
ter, it cannot be disputed that he is styled the ‘Son of man,” 
in conformity to the common idiom of the Hebrew language, 
because he is one of the posterity of Adam. I contend, on the 
other hand, that he is denominated “the Son of God” on — 
account of his Deity and eternal existence; because it is 
equally reasonable that the appellation of ‘‘Son of God” should | 
be referred to the Divine nature, as that that of ‘Son of man” 
should be referred to the human nature... In short, in the pas- 
sage which I have cited, ‘‘that he, who was made of the seed 
of David according to the flesh, was declared to be the Son of. 
God with power,” Paul intends the same as he teaches us in 
another place, that ‘‘ Christ, who as concerning the flesh came 
of the Jews, is God blessed for ever.”’ But if the distinction 
of the two natures be expressed in both these passages, by 
what authority will they deny that he is the Son of God in 
respect of his Divine nature, who according to the flesh is 
hkewise the Son of man? 

Vil. 'They clamorously urge in support of their error that 
God is said ‘‘not to have spared his own Son,’ (e) and that 
the angel directed that the very same who was to be born of 
the Virgin, should be called “the Son of the Highest.” (f) 
But to prevent their glorying in so futile an objection, let 
them accompany us in a brief examination of the validity of 
their reasoning. For if it be rightly -concluded, that he began 
to be the Son of God at his conception, because he that is 


(d) Rom. i. 1—4. (e) Rom. viii. 32. (f) Luke i. 32. 


4 


CHAP. XIv. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. JAS 


conceived is called his Son, it will follow that he began 
to be the Word at his manifestation in the flesh, because John 
tells us that ‘he declares’ that, which his hands have handled, 
of the Word of life.’(g¢) So when they read the following 
address of the prophet, “Thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though 
thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee 
shall he come forth unto me that is to be Ruler in Israel, 
whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting, or ° 
from the days of eternity,’ (h) what interpretation will they 
be obliged to adopt, if they determine to pursue such a mode 
of argumentation? For I have declared that we by no means 
coincide with Nestorius, who imagined two Christs. Accord- 
ing to our doctrine, Christ has made us the sons of God, 
together with himself, by the privilege of a fraternal union, 
because he is, in our nature which he assumed, the only begot- 
ten Son of God. And Augustine judiciously apprizes us, ‘“ that 
it is an illustrious mirror of the wonderful and singular grace 
of God, that Jesus Christ, considered as man, obtained honour 
which he conld not merit.”” From his very birth, therefore, 
was Christ adorned, even in his human nature, with the dignity 
of being the Son of God. Yet in the unity of person we must 
not imagine such a confusion, as to destroy that which is pe- 
culiar to Deity. For it is no more unreasonable, that the eter- 
nal Word of God and the man Christ Jesus, the two natures 
being united into one person, should be called the Son of God 
in different senses, than that he should be styled, in various 
respects, sometimes the Son of God, sometimes the Son of man. 
Nor are we any more embarrassed with the other, cavil of Ser- 
vetus, that before Christ appeared in the flesh, he is no where 
called the Son of God, but in a figurative sense. For though 
the description of him then was rather obscure, yet since it has 
now been clearly proved, that he was the eternal God no 
otherwise than as he was the Word begotten of the eternal 
Father, and that this name is applicable to him in the character 
of Mediator which he has assumed, only because he is God 
manifested in the flesh; and that God the Father would not 
have been thus denominated from the beginning, unless there 
had even then been a mutual relation to the Son, who is the 
source of all kindred or paternity in heaven and in earth ; (7) the 
inference is clear, that even under the Jaw and the prophets he 
was the Son of God, before this name was commonly used in 
the Church. If the contention be merely about the word, 
Solomon, in speaking of the infinite sublimity of God, affirms 
his Son to be incomprehensible as well as himself: “What is 
his name,” says he, “and what is his Son’s name, if thou 
canst tell?” (kK) Iam aware that this testimony will not have 


(g) 1Johni.1. (hb) Micah v.2. — (i) Eph. iii. 15. (&) Prov. xxx. 4, 


* 


AAA INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK 11. 


sufficient weight with contentious persons, nor indeed do I lay 
much stress on it, only that it fixes the charge of a malicious 
cavil on those who deny that Christ is the Son of God, any 
otherwise than because he has become man. It must also be 
remarked that all the most ancient writers have with one ac- 
cord so unequivocally asserted the same doctrine, that it argues 
impudence equally ridiculous and detestable in those who dare 
to represent us as opposing Ireneus and Tertullian, who both 
acknowledge that Jesus Christ, who at length made a visible 
appearance, was.always the invisible Son of God. 

VIll. But although Servetus has accumulated many hor- 
rible and monstrous notions, to which some of his brethren, per- 
haps, would refuse to subscribe, yet, whoever they are that 
acknowledge not Christ to be the Son of God, except in the 
human nature, if we press them closely, we shall find that this 
title is admitted by them on no other ground than because 
he was conceived of the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Vir- 
gin; as the Manicheans formerly pretended that man received 
his soul by emanation from God, because it is said that God 
breathed into Adam the breath of life. (2) For they lay such 
stress on the name of Son, that they leave no difference be- 
tween the two natures, but tell us, in a confused manner, that 
Christ is the Son of God, considered as man, because his 


7 


aa 


human nature was begotten by God. ‘Thus the eternal gene- © 


ration of Wisdom, of which Solomon speaks, (7) is destroyed, 
and no notice is taken of the Deity in the Mediator, or a phan- 
tom is substituted instead of his humanity. It might indeed 
be useful to refute the grosser fallacies of Servetus, with which 
he has fascinated himself and others, that the pious reader, ad- 
monished by this example, may preserve himself within the 
bounds of sobriety and modesty ; yet I conceive this will be 
unnecessary here, as I have already done it in a separate trea- 
tise. The substance of them all is, that the Son of God was 
from the beginning an ideal existence, and that even then he 
was predestinated to be a man who was to be the essential image 
of God. Nor does he acknowledge any other word of God 
than what consists in an external splendour. His generation 
he explains thus: that there existed in God from the beginning 
a will to beget a Son, which was carried into effect by his 
actual formation. He likewise confounds the Spirit with the 
Word, by asserting that God distributed the invisible Word 
and Spirit into body and soul. In short, he puts the prefigu- 
ration of Christ in the place of his generation; and affirms 
that he who was then in external appearance a shadowy Son, 
was at length begotten by the Word, to which he attributes 
the properties of seed. Whence it will follow, that the mean- 


(l) Gen. ii. 7. (m) Prov. viii. 22, &c. 


& 
CHAP. Xv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. AAS 


est animals are equally the children of God, because they were 
eréated of the original seed of the Word of God. For though 
he compounds Christ of three uncreated elements, to counte- 
nance the assertion that he is begotten of the essence of God, 
yet he pretends him to have been the first-born among crea- 
tures in such a sense, that even inanimate substances, according 
to their rank, possess the same essential Divinity. And that 
he may not seem to despoil Christ of his Deity, he asserts that 
his flesh is coéssential with God, and that the Word was made 
flesh by a conversion of the humanity into Deity. Thus, while 
he cannot conceive Christ to be the Son of God, unless his 
flesh proceeded. from the essence of God, and were reconverted 
into Deity, he annihilates the eternal hypostasis of the Word, 
and deprives us of the Son of David, the promised Redeemer. 
He frequently indeed repeats this, that the Son was begotten 
of God by knowledge and predestination, but that at length he 
was made man of those materials, which in the beginning ap- 
peared with God in the three elements, and which afterwards 
appeared in the first light of the world, in the cloud, and in 
the pillar of fire. Now, how shamefully he contradicts himself, 
it would be too tedious to relate. From this summary the 
judicious reader will conclude, that by the subtle fallacies of 
this heretic, the hope of salvation is completely extinguished. 
_For if the body were the Deity itself, it would no longer be 
the temple of it. Now, we can have no Redeemer. except 
him who became man, by being really begotten of the seed 
of Abraham and David according to the flesh. Servetus makes 
a very improper use of the language of John, that “the word 
was made flesh ;” for while it opposes the error of Nestorius, 
it is as far from affording the least countenance to this impious 
notion, which originated with Eutyches. ‘The sole design of 
the evangelist was, to assert the union of the two natures in 
one person. 


CHAPTER XY. 


THE CONSIDERATION OF CHRIST’S THREE OFFICES, PROPHETI- 
CAL, REGAL, AND SACERDOTAL, NECESSARY TO OUR KNOWING 
THE END OF HIS MISSION FROM THE FATHER, AND THE 
BENEFITS WHICH HE CONFERS ON US. 


Ir is a just observation of Augustine, that although heretics 
profess the name of Christ, yet he is not a foundation to them 
in common with the pious, but remains exclusively the foun 


446 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK i, 


dation of the Church; because, on a diligent consideration of 
what belongs to Christ, Christ will be found among them ouly 
in name, not in reality. Thus the Papists. in the present age, 
although the name of the Son of God, the Redeemer of the 
world, be frequently in their ‘mouths, yet since they are con- 
tented with the mere name, and despoil him of his power and 
dignity, these words of Paul, ‘‘not holding the head,” (7) are 
truly applicable to them. ‘Therefore, that faith may find in 
Christ a solid ground of salvation, and so may rely on him, it 
is proper for us to establish this principle, that the office which 
was assigned to him by the Father consists of three parts. For 
he was given as a Prophet, a King, and a Priest; though we 
should derive but little benefit from an acquaintance with 
these names, unaccompanied with a knowledge of their end 
and use. For they are likewise pronounced among the Pa- 
pists, but in a frigid and unprofitable manner, while they are 
ignorant of what is included in each of these titles. We 
have before observed, that although God sent prophets one 
after another in a continual succession, and never left his 
people destitute of useful instruction, such as was sufficient for 
salvation, yet the minds of the pious were always persuaded, 
that the full light of understanding was not to be expected till 
the advent of the Messiah. And that this opinion had even 
reached the Samaritans, notwithstanding they had never been 
acquainted with the true religion, appears from the speech of 
the woman: ‘‘ When Messias is come, he will tell us all 
things.” (0) Nor had the Jews entertained this sentiment 
without sufficient ground, but believed as they had been 
taught by infallible oracles. One of the most remarkable 
is this passage of Isaiah: ‘‘ Behold, I have given him for a 
Witness to the people, a leader and commander to the peo- 
ple ;”’(p) just as he had before styled him ‘the Wonderful 
Counsellor.” (q) In the same manner the apostle, with a view 
to display the perfection of the evangelical doctrine, after 
having said, that ‘God at sundry times and in divers manners 
spake unto the fathers by the prophets,’ adds, that he “ hath ~ 
in these last days spoken unto us by his Son.” (r) But be- 

cause it was the office of all the prophets to keep the Church 

in a state of suspense and expectation, and also to support it 

till the advent of the Mediator, we therefore find the faithful 

complaining, in their dispersion, that they were deprived of — 
this ordinary blessing: ‘“‘ We see not our signs: there is no 

more any prophet: neither is there among us any that know- 

eth how long.’ (s) At length, when Christ was at no great 


- 


(n) Col. ii. 19. (p) Isaiah lv. 4. (r) Heb. i. 1, 2. 
(0) John iv. 25. (q) Isaiah ix. 6. (s) Psalm Ixxiv. 9. 


CHAP. xv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 44,7 


distance, a time was prefixed for Daniel to seal up the vision 
“and prophecy, not only to authenticate the prediction it con- 
tained, but in order that the faithful might patiently bear for a 
time the want of prophets, because the plenitude and conclu- 
sion of all revelations was near at hand. (f) 

II. Now, it is to be observed, that the appellation of ‘‘ Christ ” 
belongs to these three offices. For we know that under the 
law not only priests and kings, but prophets also, were anointed 
with holy oil. Hence the celebrated title of ‘‘ Messiah” was 
given to the promised Mediator. But though I confess that he 
was called the Messiah with particular reference to his king- 
dom, as I have already shown, yet the prophetical and sacerdo- 
tal unctions have their respective places, and must not be 
neglected by us. The former is expressly mentioned by Isaiah 
in these words: ‘The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; 
because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto 
the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to 
proclaim liberty to the captives, to proclaim the acceptable year 
of the Lord.” (w) We see that he was anointed by the Spirit, 
to be a preacher and witness of the grace of the Father; and 
that not in a ‘common manner; for he is distinguished from 
other teachers, who held a similar office. And here again it 
must be remarked, that he received this unction, not only for 
himself, that he might perform the office of a teacher, but for 
his whole body, that the preaching of the gospel might con- 
tinually be attended with the power of the Spirit. But it re- 
mains beyond all doubt, that by this perfection of doctrine 
which he has introduced, he has put an end to all prophecies ; 
so that they who, not contented with the gospel, make any 
extraneous addition to it, are guilty of derogating from his au- 
thority. For that voice, which thundered from heaven, “ This 
is my beloved Son; hear ye him,” (v) has exalted him bya 
peculiar privilege above all others. From the head this unction 
is afterwards diffused over the members, according to the pre- 
diction of Joel: ‘“ Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy 
and see visions.”’ (w) But the declarations of Paul, that ‘he 
is made unto us wisdom,” (z) and that ‘in him are hid all the 
treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” (y) have rather a dif- 
ferent meaning; namely, that beside him there is nothing 
useful to be known, and that they who by faith apprehend 
him as he is, have embraced the whole infinitude of celestial 
blessings. For which reason he writes in another place, “I 
determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus 
Christ, and him crucified ;’’ (z) which is perfectly just, because 


(t) Dan. ix. 24. (u) Isaiah ]xi. 1, 2. (v) Matt. xvii. 5. (w) Joel ti. 28. 
(x) 1 Cor. i. 30. (y) Col. ii. 3. (z) 1 Cor. ii. 2. 


AAS» INSTITUTES OF THE) [Book 11, 


it is unlawful to go beyond the simplicity of the gospel. And 


the tendency of the prophetic dignity in Christ is, to assure us” 


that all the branches of perfect wisdom are included in the 
system of doctrine which he has given us. 

III. I come now to his kingdom, of which it would be use- 
less to speak, without first apprizing the reader, that it is of a 
spiritual nature ; because thence we may gather what is its 
use, and what advantage it confers upon us, and in short all its 
power and eternity. The eternity, which the angel in Daniel 
ascribes to the person of Christ, the angel in Luke justly ap- 
plies to the salvation of the people. But this also is twofold, 
or is to be considered in two points of view ; one extending to 
the whole body of the Church, the other belonging to every in- 
dividual member. 'To the former must be referred the follow- 
ing passage in the Psalms: ‘‘ Once have I sworn by my holiness 
that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure for ever, 
and his throne as the sun before me. It shall be established 
for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven.” (a) 
There is no doubt that God here promises to be the everlasting 
Governor and Defender of his Church, through the medium of 
his Son. For the truth of this prophecy will only be found in 
Christ ; since immediately after the death of Solomon, the dig- 
nity of the kingdom sustained a considerable degradation, the 
greater part of it, to the disgrace of the family of David, 
being transferred to a private man, and afterwards was di- 
minished more and more, till at length it fell in a melancholy 
and total ruin. ‘The same sentiment is conveyed in this ex- 
clamation of Isaiah: ‘* Who shall declare his generation ? ” (6) 
For when he pronounces that Christ will survive after his 
death, he connects his members with him. Therefore, when- 
ever we hear that Christ is armed with eternal power, let us 
remember, that this is the bulwark which supports the perpe- 
tuity of the Church; that amidst the turbulent agitations with 
which it is incessantly harassed, and amidst the painful and 
formidable commotions which menace it with innumerable ca- 
lamities, it may still be preserved in safety. Thus, when David 
derides the presumption of the enemies who attempt to break 
the yoke of God and of his Christ, and says, that the kings and 
the people rage in vain, since he that dwelleth in the heavens 
is sufficiently powerful to repel their violence, —he assures the 
faithful of the perpetual preservation of the Church, and ani- 
mates them to entertain a cheerful hope, whenever it happens 
to be oppressed. (c) So, in another place, when, speaking in the 
name of God, he says, “‘ Sit thou at my right hand, until I make 
thine enemies thy footstool,” (d) he apprizes us that though 


(a) Psalm Ixxxix. 35—37. (c) Psalm ii. 1, &e. 
(6) Isaiah iii. 8. (d) Psalm ex. 1. 


1 


i 


CHAP. xv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. ‘449 


numerous and powerful enemies conspire to assault the Church, 
yet they are not strong enough to prevail against that immu- 
table decree of God, by which he has constituted his Son an 
eternal King. Whence it follows that it is impossible for the 
devil, with all the assistance of the world, ever to destroy the 
Church, which is founded on the eternal throne of Christ. 
Now, with respect to its particular use to each individual, this 
same eternity ought to encourage our hope of a blessed immor- 
tality ; for we see that whatever is terrestrial and worldly is 
temporary and perishable. ‘Therefore, to raise our hope towards 
heaven, Christ declares that his “kingdom is not of this 
world.” (e) Inaword, whenever we hear that the kingdom 
of Christ is spiritual, excited by this declaration, we ought to 
penetrate to the hope of a better life, and as we are now pro- 
tected by the power of Christ, let us expect the full benefit of 
this grace in the world to come. 

IV. The truth of our observation, that it is impossible to 
perceive the nature and advantages of the kingdom of Christ, 
unless we know it to be spiritual, is sufficiently evident from a 
consideration of the hardship and misery of our condition in 
the state of warfare under the cross, in which we have to con- 
tinue as long as we live. What advantage, then, could accrue 
to us from being collected under the- government of the hea- 
venly King, if the benefit of it were not to extend beyond the 
present state? It ought therefore to be known, that whatever 
felicity is promised us in Christ, consists not in external ac- 
commodations, such as a life of joy and tranquillity, abundant 
wealth, security from every injury, and numerous delights 
suited to our carnal desires, but that it is peculiar to the 
heavenly state. Asin the world the prosperous and desirable 
state of a nation consists partly in domestic peace, and an 
abundance of all blessings, and every good, and partly in 
strong bulwarks to secure it from external violence, so Christ 
enriches his people with every thing necessary to the eternal 
salvation of their souls, and arms them with strength to enable 
them to stand invincible against all the assaults of their spirit- 
ual foes. Whence we infer that he reigns rather for us than 
for himself, and that both internally and externally ; that being 
replenished, as far as God knows to be necessary for us, with 
the gifts of the Spirit, of which we are naturally destitute, we 
may perceive from these first-fruits that we are truly united to 
God, in order to our perfect happiness ; and in the next place, 
that, depending on the power of the same Spirit, we may not 
doubt of being always victorious over the devil, the world, and 
every kind of evil. This is implied in the answer of Christ to 


(e) John xviii. 36 
VOL. 1. 57 


q 


450 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK 11 


the Pharisees, that as ‘‘the kingdom of God is within ”’ us, it 
‘cometh not with observation.” (f) For it is probable, that 
in consequence of his having professed himself to be that King, 
under whom the highest blessing of God was to be expected, 
they ludicrously desired him to display the insignia of his dig- 
nity. But to prevent them, who had otherwise too great a 
propensity to the world, from directing all their attention to 
external pomp, he commands them to enter into their own 
consciences, ‘‘ for the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, 
and joy in the Holy Ghost.” (g@) Here we are briefly taught 
what advantage results to us from the kingdom of Christ. For 
since it is not terrestrial or carnal, so as to be liable to corrup- 
tion, but spiritual, it elevates us even to eternal life, that we 
may patiently pass through this life in afflictions, hunger, cold, 
contempt, reproaches, and other disagreeable circumstances ; 
contented with this single assurance, that our King will never 
desert us, but will assist our necessities, till having completed 
the term of our warfare, we shall be called to the triumph ; for 
the rule of his government is, to communicate to us whatever | 
he has received of the Father. Now, since he furnishes and 
arms us with his power, adorns us with his beauty and magni- 
ficence, and enriches us with his wealth, hence we derive 
most abundant cause for glorying, and even confidence, to en- 
able us to contend with intrepidity against the devil, sin, and 
death. In the last place, since we are clothed with his right- 
eousness, we may boldly rise superior to all the reproaches of 
the world ; and as he liberally replenishes us with his favours, 
so we ought on our part to bring forth fruit to his glory. 

V. His regal unction, therefore, is not represented to us as 
composed of oil and aromatic perfumes ; but he is called “ the 
Christ of God,’ (h) because “ the spirit of wisdom and under- 
standing, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of know- 
ledge and of the fear of the Lord,” (7) rested upon him. ‘This is 
the ‘oil of gladness,’’ with which the Psalmist declares him to 
have been ‘anointed above” his ‘fellows ;” (k) because, if 
he were not possessed of such excellence, we should be all op- 
pressed with poverty and famine. And, as we have observed, 
he was not enriched on his own private account, but that he 
might communicate his abundance to them who are hungry 
and thirsty. For as it is said that the Father “ giveth not the 
Spirit by measure unto him,” (2) so another passage expresses 
the reason — “that of his fulness we might all receive, and 
grace for grace.’ (m) From this source proceeds the munifi- 
cence mentioned by Paul, by which grace is variously distri- 


(f) Luke xvii. 20, 21. (g) Rom. xiv. 17. (h) Luke ix. 20. 
(i) Isaiah xi. 2. (ie) Psalm -xly. 7. (2) John iii. 34. (m) John i. 16 


- 


CHAP. xv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. “A561 


buted to the faithful, “‘according to the measure of the gift of 


Christ.” (x) These passages abundantly confirm what I have 
said —that the kingdom of Christ consists in the Spirit, not in 
terrestrial pleasures or pomps ; and that, therefore, in order to be 
partaxers of it, we must renounce the world. A visible em- 
blem of this unction was displayed at the baptism of Christ, 
when the Holy Spirit rested on him in the form of a dove. 
That the Holy Spirit and his gifts are designated by the word 
wnction, ought not to be esteemed either novel or absurd, be- 
cause we have no other support even_for our animal life ; but es- 
pecially as it respects the heavenly life, we have not a particle of 
vigour in us, but what we have received from the Holy Spirit, 
who has chosen his residence in Christ, that those heavenly 
riches, which we so greatly need, may from him be copiously 
distributed to us. Now, as the faithful stand invincible in the 
strength of their King, and are enriched with his spiritual 
blessings, they are justly denominated Christians. But to this 
eternity, of which we have spoken, there is nothing repugnant 
in these expressions of Paul: “Then he shall deliver up the 
kingdom to God, even the Father,’ and “ ‘Then shall the Son 
himself be subject, that God may be all inall.” (0) He only 
intends, that in that perfect glory the administration of the 
kingdom will not be the same as it is at present. For the Fa- 
ther has given all power to the Son, that he may guide, nou- 
rish, and sustain us by his hand, may guard us by his protection, 
and aid us in all our necessities. ‘Thus, during the period of 
our pilgrimage, while we are absent from God,. Christ inter- 
poses between us, to bring us by degrees to a perfect union 
with him: His being said to sit at the right hand of the Fa- 
ther, is equivalent to his being called the Father’s vicegerent, 
intrusted with all the power of the government ; because it is 
the will of God to govern and defend his Church through the 
mediation of his Son. ‘This is the explanation given by Paul 
to the Ephesians, that he was “set at the right hand of the 
Father, to be the head over all things to the Church, which is 
his body.” (p) ‘To the same purpose is what he states in 
another place, that there has been “ given him a name which 
is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee 
should bow; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus 
Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (q) For even 
in these words he displays the order in the kingdom of Christ 
necessary for our present infirmity. Thus Paul rightly con- 


cludes, that God himself will then be the only head of the 


Church, because the functions of Christ in the preservation and 


- (n) Eph. iv. 7. (p) Eph. i. 20, 22, 23. 
(0) 1 Cor. xv. 24. 28; (q) Phil. u. 9—11. 


7 


452 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 1. 


salvation of the Church will be fully discharged. For the 
same reason the Scripture often styles him Lord, because the 
Father has given him authority over us, that he may exercise his 
own dominion by the agency of his Son. ‘ For though there 
be ” many authorities celebrated in the world, ‘to us there is 
but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in 
him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and 
we by him,’ (r) says Paul. Whence it may justly be con- 
cluded, that he is the same God, who by the mouth of Isaiah 
has asserted himself to be the King and Lawgiver of his 
Church. (s) For though he every where ascribes all the au- 
thority he possesses to the free gift of the Father, yet he only 
signifies that he reigns in the majesty and power of God ; be- 
cause he assumed the character of Mediator, m order to ap- 
proach to us by descending from the bosom and incomprehen- 
sible glory of his Father. Wherefore it is the more reasonable 
that we should all with one consent be ready to obey him, and 
with the greatest alacrity conform all our services to his will. 
For as he combines the offices of a King and a Shepherd to- 
wards the faithful who yield a voluntary obedience, so, on the 
contrary, we are informed, that he bears ‘‘a rod of iron” to 
‘“‘ break ’? all the stubborn and rebellious, and to ‘‘dash them 
in pieces like a potter’s vessel.’ (t) It is likewise predicted 
that ‘“‘he shall judge among the heathen; he shall fill the 
places with the dead bodies; he shall wound the heads over 
many countries.” (w) Of this there are some instances to be 
seen in the present state, but the complete accomplishment of it 
will be at the last jadgment, which may also with propriety be 
considered as the last act of his reign. 

VI. Concerning his priesthood, we have briefly to remark, 
that the end and use of it is, that he may be a Mediator pure 
from every stain, and by his holiness may render us acceptable 
to God. But because the righteous curse prevents our access 
to him, and God in his character of Judge is offended with us, — 
in order that our Priest may appease the wrath of God, and 
procure his favour for us, there is a necessity for the interven- 
tion of an atonement. Wherefore, that Christ might perform 
this office, it was necessary for him to appear with a sacrifice. 
For even under the law the priest was not permitted to enter 
the sanctuary without blood; that the faithful might know, 
that notwithstanding the interposition of the Priest as an in- 
tercessor, yet it was impossible for God to be propitiated with- 
out the expiation of sins. This subject the apostle discusses 
at large in the Epistle to the Hebrews, from the seventh chap- 
ter almost to the end of the tenth. But the sum of the whole 


(r) 1 Cor. viii. 5,6. (s) Isaiah xxiii. 22. (t) Psalm ii.9. (wu) Psalm ex. 6 


Ne 
r. 
7 


|, oe 
Ls ae 


CHAP. XvV.| CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 453 


is this—that the sacerdotal dignity belongs exclusively to 
Christ, because, by the sacrifice of his death, he has abolished 
our guilt, and made satisfaction for our sins. The vast im- 
portance of this we are taught by that solemn oath which 
‘the Lord hath sworn, and will not repent; Thou art a priest 
for ever, after the order of Melchisedec.” (v) For there is no 
doubt that God intended to establish that capital point, which 
he knew to be the principal hinge on which our salvation 
turns. And as we have observed, there is no access to God, 
either for ourselves or our prayers, unless our Priest sanctify us 
by taking away our sins, and obtain for us that grace from 
which we are excluded by the pollution of our vices and 
crimes. ‘Thus, we see, it is necessary to begin with the death 
of Christ, in order to experience the efficacy and utility of his 
priesthood. Hence it follows, that he is an eternal inter- 
cessor, and that it is by his intervention we obtain favour 
with God. Hence proceeds not only confidence in prayer, 
but also tranquillity to the consciences of the faithful ; while 
they recline in safety on the paternal indulgence of God, and 
are certainly persuaded, that he is pleased with whatever is 
consecrated to him through the Mediator. Now, as under the 
law God commanded victims to be offered to him from the 
flock and the herd, a new and different method has been 
adopted in the case of Christ, that the sacrifice should be the 
same with the priest; because it was impossible to find any 
other adequate satisfaction for sins, or any one worthy of so 
great an honour as to offer to God his only begotten Son. 
Besides, Christ ‘sustains the character of a Priest, not only to 
render the Father favourable and propitious to us by an eternal 
law of reconciliation, but also to associate us with himself in 
so great an honour. For we, who are polluted in ourselves, 
being ‘‘ made priests’’(w) in him, offer ourselves and all our 
services to God, and enter boldly into the heavenly sanctuary, 
so that the sacrifices of prayers and praise, which proceed from 
us, are ‘acceptable,’ and ‘a sweet-smelling savour” (7) in 
the Divine presence. This is included in the declaration of 
Christ, “‘ For their sakes I sanctify myself; (y) for being 
arrayed in his holiness, he having dedicated us, together with 
himself, to the Father, we, who are otherwise offensive in his 
sight, become acceptable to him, as pure, unpolluted, and 
holy. ‘This is the meaning of the “anointing of the Most 
Holy,’ (z) which is mentioned in Daniel. For we must ob- 
serve the contrast between this unction and that shadowy 
unction which was then in use ; as though the angel had said. 


(v) Psalm ex. 4. (w) Rev. i. 6. (z) Eph. v. 2. 
(y) John xvii. 19. (z) Dan. ix. 24, 


a 


4.54) INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK II. 


that the shadows would be dissipated, and that there would be 
a real priesthood in the person of Christ. So much the more 
detestable is the invention of those, who, not content with the 
priesthood of Christ, have presumed to take upon themselves 
the office of sacrificing him ; which is daily attempted among 
the Papists, where the mass is considered as an immolation of 
Christ. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


CHRIST’S EXECUTION OF THE OFFICE OF A REDEEMER TO PRO- 
CURE OUR SALVATION. HIS DEATH, RESURRECTION, AND AS- 
CENSION TO HEAVEN. 


Au that we have hitherto advanced concerning Christ is to 
be referred to this point, that being condenined, dead, and 
ruined in ourselves, we should seek righteousness, deliverance, 
life, and salvation in him; as we are taught by this remarkable 
declaration of Peter, that “there is none other name under 
heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (a) 
The name of JESUS was given him, not rashly or by a for- 
tuitous accident, or by the will of men, but was brought from 
heaven by the angel, the herald of the supreme decree, and 
also with this reason annexed to it: “for he shall save his 
people from their sins; ” (b) in which words may be remarked. 
what we have before hinted, that the office of a Redeemer was 
assigned to him in order that he might be our Saviour. Never- 
theless, the redemption would be incomplete, if he did not by 
continual advances carry us forward to the ultimate end of sal- 
vation. 'Therefore, as soon as we deviate from him, though 
but in the smallest degree, we gradually lose sight of salvation, 
which resides entirely in him; so that those who are not sa- 
tisfied with him, voluntarily deprive themselves of all grace. 
And the following observation of Bernard is worthy of recital : 
“that the name of Jesus is not only light, but also food; that 
it is likewise oil, without which all the food of the soul is dry’ 
that it is salt, unseasoned by which, whatever is presented to 
us is insipid; finally, that it is honey in the mouth, melody 
in the ear, joy in the heart, and medicine to the soul; and 
that there are no charms in any discourse where his name is 
not heard.” But here we ought diligently to examine how he 
has procured salvation for us; that we may not only know 


(a) Acts iv. 12. (6) Matt. 1. 21. 


i 


CHAP. Xv1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. A455 


him to be the author of it, but, embracing those things which 
are sufficient for the establishment of our faith, may reject 
every thing capable of drawing us aside to the right hand or to 
the left. For since no man can descend into himself and se- 
riously consider his own character, without perceiving that 
God is angry with him and hostile to him, and consequently 
he must find himself under a necessity of anxiously seeking 
some way to appease him, which can never be done without a 
satisfaction, — this is a case in which the strongest assurance is 
required. For sinners, till they be delivered from guilt, are 
always subject to the wrath and malediction of God, who, 
being a righteous Judge, never suffers his law to be violated 
with impunity, but stands prepared to avenge it. 

II. Before we proceed any further, let us examine, by the 
way, how it could be consistent, that God, who prevents us 
with his mercy, should be our enemy, till he was reconciled to 
us by Christ. For how could he have given us a special 
pledge of his love in his only begotten Son, if he had not pre- 
viously embraced us in his gratuitous favour? As there is 
some appearance of contradiction, therefore, in this representa- 
tion, I shall solve the difficulty. The Spirit speaks in the 
Scriptures nearly in this manner — That God was an enemy to 
men, till by the death of Christ they were restored to his fa-’ 
vour ; (6) that they were under the curse till their iniquity was 
expiated by his sacrifice;(c) that they were separated from 
God, till they were restored to union with him by the body of 
Christ.(d@) Such modes of expression are accommodated to 
our capacity, that we may better understand how miserable 
and calamitous our condition is, out of Christ. For if it were 
not clearly expressed, that we are obnoxious to the wrath and 
vengeance of God, and to eternal death, we should not so fully 
discover how miserable we must be without the Divine mercy, 
nor should we so highly estimate the blessing of deliverance. 
For example; let any man be addressed in the following man- 
ner: ‘If, while you remained a sinner, God had hated you, and 
rejected you according to your demerits, horrible destruction 
would have befallen you; but because he has voluntarily, and 
of his own gratuitous kindness, retained you in his favour, and 
not permitted you to be alienated from him, he has thus de- 
livered you from that danger ;”’ he will be affected, and will in 
some measure perceive how much he is indebted to the Divine 
mercy. But if, on the contrary, he be told, what the Scripture 
teaches, ‘that he was alienated from God by sin, an heir of 
wrath, obnoxious to the punishment of eternal death, excluded 
from all hope of salvation, a total stranger to the Divine bless- 


(b) Rom. v. 10. (c) Gal. iii. 10—13. (d) Col. i. 21, 22. 


4.56 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1. 


ing, a slave to Satan, a captive under the yoke of sin, and, in 
a word, condemned to, and already involved in, a horrible de- 
struction; that in this situation, Christ interposed as an in- 


tercessor; that he has taken upon himself and suffered the 


punishment which by the righteous judgment of God im- 
pended over all sinners; that by his blood he has expiated 
those crimes which render them odious to God; that by this 
expiation God the Father has been satisfied and duly atoned ; 
that by this intercessor his wrath has been appeased ; that this 
is the foundation of peace between God and men ; that this is 
the bond of his benevolence towards them ;” will he not be 
the more affected by these things in proportion to the more 


correct and lively representation of the depth of calamity from ~ 


which he has been delivered? In short, since it 1s impos- 
sible for the life which is presented by the mercy of God, to 
be embraced by our hearts with sufficient ardour, or reeeived 
with becoming gratitude, unless we have been previously terri- 
fied and distressed with the fear of the Divine wrath, and the 
horror of eternal death, we are instructed by the sacred doc- 
trine, that irrespective of Christ we may contemplate God as 
in some measure incensed against us, and his hand armed for 
our destruction, and that we may embrace his benevolence 
and paternal love only in Christ. 

III. Now, though this is expressed according to the weakness 
of our capacity, yet it is strictly true. For God, who is the 
perfection of righteousness, cannot love iniquity, which he be- 
holds in us all. We all, therefore, have in us that which 
deserves God’s hatred. Wherefore, in respect of our corrupt 
nature, and the succeeding depravity of our lives, we are all 
really offensive to God, guilty in his sight, and born to the 
damnation of hell. But beeause the Lord will not lose in us 
that which is his own, he yet discovers something that his 
goodness may love. For notwithstanding we are sinners 
through our own fault, yet we are still his creatures ; notwith- 
standing we have brought death upon ourselves, yet he had 
created us for life. ‘Thus, by a pure and gratuitous love towards 
us, he is excited to receive us into favour. But if there isa 
perpetual and irreconcilable opposition between righteousness 
and iniquity, he cannot receive us entirely, as long as we re- 
main sinners. Therefore, to remove all occasion of enmity, 
and to reconcile us completely to himself, he abolishes all our 
guilt, by the expiation exhibited in the death of Christ, that 
we, who before were polluted and impure, may appear right- 
eous and holy in his sight. The love of God the Father there- 
fore precedes our reconciliation in Christ ; or rather it is because 
he first loves, that he afterwards reconciles us to himself. (e} 


(e) 1 John iy. 19. 


CHAP. xvI.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 457 


But because, till Christ relieves us by his death, we are not freed 
from that iniquity which deserves the indignation of God, and 
is accursed and condemned in his sight; we have not a com- 
plete and solid union with God, before we are united to him by 
Christ. And therefore, if we would assure ourselves that God 
is pacified and propitious to us, we must fix our eyes and 
hearts on Christ alone, since it is by him only that we really 
obtain the non-imputation of sins, the imputation of which is 
connected with the Divine wrath. 

IV. For this reason Paul says, that the love which God had 
for us before the creation of the world, was founded on 
Christ.(f) This doctrine is clear, and consistent with the 
Scripture, and admirably reconciles the different passages, 
where it is said, that God marifested his love to us by the gift 
of his only begotten Son, (g) and yet that he was our enemy 
till he was reconciled by the death of Christ. (2) But fora 
further confirmation of it, to such as require the testimony of 
the ancient Church, I will cite a passage from Augustine, 
which expressly maintains the same. ‘The love of God,” says 
he, ‘‘is incomprehensible and immutable. For he did not be- 
gin to love us when we were reconciled to him by the blood 
of his Son, but he loved us before the creation of the world, 
that we might be his children, together with his only begotten 
Son, even before we had any existence. ‘Therefore our re- 
conciliation by the death of Christ must not be understood as 
if he reconciled us to God, that God might begin to love those 
whom he had before hated; but we are reconciled to him who 
already loved us, but with whom we were at enmity on ac- 
count of sin. And whether my assertion be true, let the 
apostle attest. ‘God,’ says he, ‘commendeth his love toward 
us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’ (2) 
He loved us, therefore, even when we were in the exercise of 
enmity against him, and engaged in the practice of iniquity. 
Wherefore, in a wonderful and Divine manner, he both hated 
and loved us at the same time. He hated us, as being differ- 
ent from what he had made us; but as our iniquity had not 
entirely destroyed his work in us, he could at the same time in 
every one of us hate what we had done, and love what pro- 
ceeded from himself.” This is the language of Augustine. 

VY. Now, in answer to the inquiry, how Christ, by the 
abolition of our sins, has destroyed the enmity between 
God and us, and procured a righteousness to render him fa- 
vourable and propitious to us, it may be replied in general, 
that he accomplished it for us by the whole course of his 
obedience. ‘This is proved by the testimony of Paul. ‘ As by 


(f) Eph. i. 4, 5. (g) John iii. 16. (h) Rom. v. 10. (¢) Rom. v. 8 
VOL. I. 58 


4.58 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK 11. 


one man’s disobedience many were: made sinners, so by 
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” (k) And 
indeed in another place he extends the cause of the pardon, 
which exempts us from the malediction of the law, to the 
whole life of Christ. ‘When the fulness of the time was 
come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under 
the law, to redeem them that were under the law.” (/) Thus 
he himself affirmed even his baptism to be a branch of his 
righteousness, because he acted in obedience to the command 
of the Father.(m) In short, from the time of his assum- 
ing the character of a servant, he began to pay the price of our 
deliverance in order to redeem us. Yet more precisely to 
define the means of our salvation, the Scripture ascribes this in — 
a peculiar manner to the death of Christ. He himself an- 
nounces, that he “gives his life a ransom for many.” (7) - Paul 
teaches that ‘‘he died for our sins.” (0) John the Baptist 
exclaims, ‘“‘ Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the 
sin of the world!” (p) Paul in another place declares, that we 
are ‘justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that 
is in Christ Jesus ; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation 
through faith in his blood.” (q) Also that we are “ justified by 
his blood,” and “reconciled by his death.” (7) Again: ‘ He hath 
made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might 
be made the righteousness of God in him.” (s) I shall not pro- 
ceed with all the proofs, because the catalogue would be 
immense, and many of them must hereafter be cited in then 
proper order. Wherefore, in what is called the Apostles’ Creed, 
there is very properly an immediate transition from the birth 
of Christ to his death and resurrection, in which the sum of 
perfect salvation consists. Yet there is no exclusion of the rest 
of the obedience which he performed in his hfe ; as Paul com- 
prehends the whole of it, from the beginning to the end, when 
he says, that ‘he made himself of no reputation, and took 
upon him the form of a servant, and became obedient unto 
death, even the death of the cross.’”’ (¢) And indeed his volun- 
tary submission is the principal circumstance even in his death ; 
because the sacrifice, unless freely offered, would have been 
unavailable to the acquisition of righteousness. Therefore our 
Lord, after having declared, “I lay down my life for the 
sheep,” expressly adds, ‘‘ No man taketh it from me.” (v) In 
which sense Isaiah says, ‘“‘ As a sheep before her shearers is 
dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.” (w) And the evangeli- 
zal history relates, that he went forth to meet the soldiers, (x) 


(k) Rom. v. 19. (p) John i. 29. (t) Phil. ii. 7, 8. 
(lt) Gal iv. 4, 5. (q) Rom. iii. 24, 25. (v) John x. 15, 18 
(m) Matt. in. 15. (r) Rom. v. 9, 10. (w) Isaiah li. 7. 


(n) Matt. xx. 28 (si. 24or, yok. (x) John xviii. 4.. 
(0) 1 Cor. xv. 3. . 


CHAP. XVI. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 459 


and that before Pilate he neglected making any defence, and 
waited to submit to the sentence.(y) Nor was this without 
inward conflict, because he had taken our infirmities, and it 
was necessary to give this proof of his obedience to his Fa- 
ther. And it was no mean specimen of his incomparable love 
to us, to contend with horrible fear, and amid those dreadful 
torments to neglect all care of himself, that he might promote 
our benefit. Indeed we must admit, that it was impossible for 
God to be truly appeased in any other way, than by Christ 
renouncing all concern for himself, and submitting and devo- 
ting himself entirely to his will. On this subject the apostle 
appositely cites the testimony of the Psalmist: “Then said I, 
Lo, I come ; in the volume of the book it is written of me, I 
delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my 
heart.” (z) But since terrified consciences find no rest but in 
a sacrifice and ablution to expiate their sins, we are properly 
directed thither, and the death of Christ is exhibited to us as 
the source of life. Now, because our guilt rendered us lable to 
a curse at the heavenly tribunal of God, the condemnation of 
Christ before Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea, is stated in 
the first place, that we may know that on this righteous person 
was inflicted the punishment which belonged to us. We could 
not escape the-terrible judgment of God; to deliver us from it, 
Christ submitted to be condemned even before a wicked and 
profane mortal. For the name of the governor is mentioned, 
viot only to establish the credit of the history, but that we may 
learn, what is taught by Isaiah, that “the chastisement of our 
peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” (a) 
For to supersede our condemnation it was not sufficient for him 
to suffer any kind of death ; but, to accomplish our redemption, 
that kind of death was to be chosen, by which, both sustaining 
our condemnation and atoning for our sins, he might deliver 
us from both. Had he been assassinated by robbers, or mur- 
dered ina popular tumult, in such a death there would have 
been no appearance of satisfaction. But when he is placed as 
a criminal before the tribunal, — when he is accused and over- 
powered by the testimony of witnesses, and by the mouth of the 
judge is condemned to die, — we understand from these circum- 
stances, that he sustained the character of a malefactor. And 
we shall remark two things which were foretold in the pre- 
dictions of the prophets, and afford peculiar consolation and 
confirmation to our faith. For when we are told, that Christ 
was sent from the tribunal of the judge to the place of execu- 
tion, and suspended between two thieves, we see the comple- 
tim of that prophecy, which is cited by the Evangelist, “‘ He 


(y) Matt. xxvii. 12, 14. (z) Psalm xl. 7, 8. (a) Isaiah lili. 5, 


460 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 11. 


was numbered with the transgressors.” (6) For what reason ? 
to sustain the character of a sinner, not of a righteous or 
innocent person. For he died, not for his innocence, but on ac- 
count of sin. On the contrary, when we hear him absolved by 
the same mouth by which he was condemned, (for Pilate was 
constrained repeatedly to give a public testimony of his inno- 
cence, ) (c) let it remind us of what we read in another prophet: 
‘‘T restored that which I took not away.” (d) ‘Thus we shall 
behold Christ sustaining the character of a sinner and malefactor, 
while from the lustre of his innocence it will at the same time 
evidently appear, that he was loaded with the guilt of others, but 
had none of his own. He suffered, then, under Pontius Pilate, 
after having been condemned as a criminal by the solemn sen- 
tence of the governor; yet not in sucha manner, but that he 
was at the same time pronounced to be righteous, by the declara- 
tion of the same judge, that he found in him no cause of accusa- 
tion. ‘This is our absolution, that the guilt, which made us 
obnoxious to punishment, is transferred to the person of the Son 
of God. For we ought particularly to remember this satisfaction, 
that we may not spend our whole lives in terror and anxiety, as 
though we were pursued by the righteous vengeance of God, 
which the Son of God has transferred to himself. 

VI. Moreover, the species of death which he suffered, is 
fraught with a peculiar mystery. The cross was accursed, not 
only in the opinion of men, but by the decree of the Divine 
law. Therefore, when Christ is lifted up upon it, he rendefs 
himself obnoxious to the curse. And this was necessary to be 
done, that by this transfer we might be delivered from every 
curse which awaited us, or rather was already inflicted upon 
us, on account of our iniquities. This was also prefigured in 
the law. For the victims and expiations offered for sins were 
called nynwx, a word which properly signifies sim itself. By 
this appellation the Spirit intended to suggest that they were ~ 
vicarious sacrifices, to receive aud sustain the curse due to sin. 
But that which was figuratively represented in the Mosaic 
sacrifices, is actually exhibited in Christ, the archetype of the 
figures. Wherefore, in order to effect a complete expiation, he 
gave his soul ows, that is, an atoning sacrifice for sin, (f) as 
the prophet says; so that our guilt and punishment being as it 
were transferred to him, they must cease to be imputed to us. 
The apostle more explicitly testifies the same, when he says, 
‘¢* He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that 
we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (¢) For 
the Son of God, though perfectly free from all sin, nevertheless 
assumed the disgrace and ignominy of our iniquities, and, on 


b) Isaiah liti. 12. Mark xv. 28. (c) Matt. xxvii. 18, 23,24. John xviii. 38. 
(d) Psalm lxix. 4. (f) Isaiah hii. 10. (g) 2 Cor. v. 21. 


SHAP. XVI. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. — 461 


the other hand, arrayed us in his purity. He appears to have 
intended the same, when he says concerning sin, that it was 
“condemned in the flesh,” (1) that is, in Christ. For the Fa- 
ther destroyed the power of sin, when the curse of it was trans- 
ferred to the body of Christ. This expression therefore in- 
dicates, that Christ at his death was offered to the Father as 
an expiatory sacrifice, in order that, a complete atonement being 
made by his oblation, we may no longer dread the Divine 
wrath. Now, it is evident what the prophet meant, when he 
said, ‘‘’T’he Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all ;” (7) 
namely, that when he was about to expiate our sins, they were 
transferred to him by imputation. The cross, to which he 
was fixed, was a symbol of this, as the apostle informs us: 
‘Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being 
made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that 
hangeth on a tree; that the blessing of Abraham might come 
on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ.” (kK) Peter alluded to 
the same, where he said, “‘ He bare our sins in his own body 
on the tree ;’’ (1) because from the visible symbol of the curse, 
we more clearly apprehend, that the burden, with which we 
were oppressed, was imposed on him. Nor must we conceive 
that he submitted to a curse which overwhelmed him, but, on 
the contrary, that by sustaining it, he depressed, broke, and 
destroyed all its power. Wherefore faith apprehends an abso- 
lution in the condemnation of Christ, and a benediction in his 
curse. It is not without reason, therefore, that Paul magnifi- 
cently proclaims the triumph which Christ gained for himself 
on the cross; as though the cross, which was full of ignominy, 
had been converted into a triumphal chariot. For he says, 
that ‘‘he nailed to his cross the hand-writing, which was con- 
trary to us, and having spoiled principalities and powers, he made 
a show of them openly.” (2) Nor should this surprise us; for, 
according to the testimony of another apostle, ‘Christ offered 
himself through the eternal Spirit.” (2) Hence arose that 
change of the nature of things. But that these things may be 
deeply rooted and firmly fixed in our hearts, let us always re- 
member his sacrifice and ablution. For we certainly could 
have no confidence that Christ was our (arodurpwoig, (0) xor aver 
Aurpov, (p) xou Aacrnpiov,) (q) redemption, ransom, and propitia- 
tion, if he had not been a slaughtered victim. And for this 
reason it is, that when the Scripture exhibits the method of 
redemption, it so often makes mention of blood ; though the 
blood shed by Christ has not only served as an atonement to 
God, but likewise as a laver to purge away our pollutions. 


(h) Rom. viii. 3. (l) 1 Peter ii: 24. (0) 1 Cor. i. 30. 
(¢) Isaiah lui. 6. (m) Col. ii. 14, 15. (p) 1 Tim. ii. 6. 
(k) Gal. iii. 13, 14 (n) Heb. ix. 14. (q) Rom. iii. 25, 


A62, INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 11, 


VII. It follows in the Creed, ‘that he died and was 
buried ;’’? in which may be further seen, how in every respect 
he substituted himself ‘in our room to pay the price of our re- 
demption. Death held us in bondage under his yoke; Christ, 
to deliver us from it, surrendered himself to his power in our 
stead. ‘This is the meaning of the apostle, when he says, that 
‘‘he tasted death for every man.’ (r) For by his death he 
prevented us from dying, or, which comes to the same thing, 
by his death recovered life for us. But in this respect he 
differed from us —he surrendered himself to death to be, as it 
were, overcome by it, not that he might be absorbed in its 
abysses, but rather that he might destroy that, by which we 
should have been at length devoured ; he surrendered himself 
to death to be subdued, not that he might be overwhelmed by 
its power, but rather that he might overthrow that which 
threatened us, which indeed had already overcome us, and 
was triumphing over us. Lastly, he died, “that he might 
destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil ; 
and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life- 
time subject to bondage.’’(s) This is the first benefit we 
have received from his death. 'The second is, that, by a com- 
munication of himself, he ‘mortifies ’ our ‘‘ members which 
are upon the earth,” (¢) that they may no longer perform their 
own actions; and slays our old man, that it may not flourish 
and bear fruit any more. The burial of Christ has the same 
tendency, namely, that being made partakers of it, we may be 
buried to sin. For when the apostle teaches us that “we 
have been planted in the hkeness of the death of -Christ, and 
buried with him,” (v) to the death of sin; that “by his cross 
the world is crucified ”’ unto us, and we “unto the world ; ”’ (7) 
and that we ‘are dead with him;” (z) he not only exhorts us 
to imitate the example of his death, but declares that it con- 
tains such an efficacy, as ought to be conspicuous in all Chris- 
tians, unless they wish to render that death ineffectual and use- 
less. In the death and burial of Christ, therefore, we have a 
twofold benefit proposed to our enjoyment — deliverance from 
the thraldom of death, and the mortification of our flesh. 

VIII. But itis not right to omit his “descent into hell,” 
which is of no small importance towards the accomplishment of 
redemption. For though it appears from the writings of the 
ancients, that this article of the Creed was not always in com- 
mon use in the churches, yet in discussing a system of doc- 
trine, it 1s necessary to introduce it, as containing a mystery 
highly useful, and by no means to be despised. Indeed, there 


(r) Heb. ii. 9. (t) Col. iii. 5. (w) Gal. vi. 14. 
(s) Heb. ii. 14, 15. (v) Rom. vi. 4, 5. (x) Col. iii. 3. 


CHAP. Xxvt.| CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 463 


are some of the ancients who do not omit it. Hence we may 
conjecture that it was inserted a little after the days of the 
apostles, and was not immediately but gradually received in 
the churches. ‘T‘his at least cannot be controverted, that it 
was agreeable to the general opinion of all the faithful; since 
there is not one of the fathers, who does not mention in his 
writings the descent of Christ into hell, though they explain 
it in different senses. But by whom, or at what period, it was 
first inserted, is of little consequence ; it is of more importance 
that the Creed should present us a full and complete summary 
of faith, into which nothing should be inserted, but what is 
taken from God’s most holy word. Yet if any morosely re- 
fuse to admit it into the Creed, it shall presently be proved to 
be so necessary to the perfection of our redemption, that the 
omission of it considerably lessens the benefit of the death of 
Christ. Some, again, are of opinion, that this clause contains 
nothing new, but is only a repetition, in other words, of 
what had before been said respecting his burial; because the 
woid here rendered “hell ” is frequently used in the Scriptures 
to signify the grave. I admit the truth of their observation 
respecting the signification of this word, that it is frequently to 
be understood of the ‘‘grave ;”’ but their opinion is opposed by 
two reasons, which easily induce me to dissent from them. © 
For what extreme carelessness it would betray, after a plain 
fact had been stated in the most explicit and familiar manner, 
to assert it a second time in an obscure combination of words 
calculated rather to perplex than to elucidate it! For when 
two phrases expressive of the same thing are connected toge- 
ther, the latter ought to be an explanation of the former. But 
what an explanation would this be, if one were to express it 
thus: “‘ When Christ is said to have been buried, the meaning 
is, that he descended into hell!” Besides, it is not probable 
that such a superfluous tautology could have found its way 
into this compendium, in which the principal articles of faith 
are summarily expressed with the utmost possible brevity. And 
I doubt not, that all who have considered this point with any 
attention will easily assent to what I have advanced. 

IX. Others give a different interpretation; that Christ de- 
scended to the souls of the fathers who had died under the 
law, for the purpose of announcing the accomplishment of re- 
demption, and liberating them from the prison in which they 
were confined. To this purpose they pervert a passage in the 
psalms, that ‘he hath broken the gates of brass, and cut the 
bars of iron in sunder;’”’(y) and another in Zechariah, “I 
have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no 


(yy Psalm evii. 16. 


A464: INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 11 


water.”’(z) But since the Psalmist celebrates the liberation 

of those who are suffering captivity and imprisonment in dis- 
tant countries; and Zechariah compares the destruction in 
which the people had been overwhelmed in Babylon, to a dry 

pit or abyss ; and at the same time suggests, that the salvation 

of the whole Church is a deliverance from the abysses of hell ; 

I know not how it came to pass, that posterity should imagine 

a subterraneous cavern, to which they have given the name of 

Limbus. But this fable, although it is maintained by great 

authors, and even in the present age is by many seriously de- 
fended as a truth, is after all nothing but a fable. For to con- 

fine the souls of the dead in a prison, is quite puerile; but 

what necessity was there for Christ to descend thither in order 

to liberate them? I freely confess, indeed, that Christ illumi- 
nated them by the power of his Spirit ; that they might know 

that the grace, which they had only tasted by hope, was then 

exhibited to the world. And probably to this we may accom- 

modate that passage of Peter, where he says, that Christ ‘ went 

and preached unto the spirits who were keeping watch as in a 
tower.”’(a) This is generally rendered ‘the spirits in prison,” 

but 1 conceive improperly. The context also gives us to un= 
derstand, that the faithful who had died before that time, were 

partakers of the same grace with us. For the apostle ampli- 
fies the efficacy of the death of Christ from this consideration, 

that it penetrated even to the dead; when the souls of the 

faithful enjoyed the present view of that visitation which they 
had been anxiously expecting ; whilst, on the contrary, it was 
more clearly discovered to the reprobate, that they were exclu- 

ded from all salvation. But since Peter has not spoken in this 
distinct manner of the pious and the impious, we must not un- 

derstand him as confounding them all together, without any dis- 

crimination. He only designs to inform us, that the know- 
ledge of the death of Christ was common to them both. 

X. But laying aside all consideration of the Creed, we have 
to seek for a more certain explanation of the descent of Christ 
into hell; and we find one in the Divine word, not only holy 
and pious, but likewise replete with singular consolation. If 
Christ had merely died a corporeal death, no end would have 
been accomplished by it; it was requisite, also, that he should 
feel the severity of the Divine vengeance, in order to appease 
the wrath of God, and satisfy his justice. Hence it was 
necessary for him to contend with the powers of hell and the 
horror of eternal death. We have already stated from the 
prophet, that ‘the chastisement of our peace was upon him,” 
that ‘‘he was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for 


(z) Zech. ix. 11. (a) 1 Peter iii. 19. 


CHAP. XvI.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 465 


our iniquities ;”’ (b) the meaning of which is, that he was made 
a substitute and surety for transgressors, and even treated as a 
criminal himself, to sustain all the punishments which would 
have been inflicted on them; only with this exception, that 
“jt was not possible that he should be holden of the pains 
of death.’(c) Therefore it is no wonder, if he be said to have 
descended into hell, since he suffered that death which the 
wrath of God inflicts on transgressors. It is a very frivolous 
and even ridiculous objection to say that by this explanation 
the order o1 things is perverted, because it is absurd to make 
that subseq.:ent to his burial, which really preceded it. For 
the relation of those sufferings of Christ, which were visible to 
men, is very properly followed by that invisible and incompre- 
hensible vengeance which he suffered from the hand of God ; 
in order to assure us that not only the body of Christ was given 
as the price of our redemption, but that there was another 
greater and more excellent ransom, since he suffered in his 
soul the dreadful torments of a person condemned and irre- 
trievably lost. 
XI. In this sense Peter says, that ‘‘ God raised him up, hav- 
ing loosed the pains of death ; because it was not possible 
that he should be holden of it.”(d) He does not say simply 
“death;”’ but tells us, that the Son of God was involved in 
“the pains of death,” which proceed from the Divine wrath 
and malediction, which is the origin of death. For what a 
little thing it would have been for Christ to appear in order to 
suffer death, without any distress or perplexity, and even with 
pleasure! But this was a true specimen of his infinite mercy, 
not to evade that death which he so much dreaded. Nor can 
it be doubted, but the apostle means to suggest the same in the 
Hpistle to the Hebrews, when he says, that Christ ‘“ was heard 
in that he feared.”’(e) Some, instead of fear, translate it reve- 
rence or piety ; but how improperly, is evident from the subject 
itself, and also from the form of expression. Christ, therefore, 
‘when he offered up prayers with strong crying and tears, was 
heard in that he feared ;” not that he might obtain an exemp- 
tion from death, but that he might not be swallowed up by it 
as a sinner; for he was then sustaining our character. And it 
is certainly impossible to imagine any more formidable abyss, 
than to perceive ourselves forsaken and abandoned by God, and 
not to be heard when we call upon him, as though he had con- 
spired to destroy us. Now, we see Christ was so deeply de- 
jected, that in the urgency of distress, he was constrained to 
exclaim, “‘ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (f) 


(b) Isaiah liit. 5. (c) Acts ii. 24. (d) Acts n. 24. 
(e) Heb. v. 7. (f) Matt. xxvii. 46. 
VOL. I. 59 


466 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK tf. 


For the idea of some, that he spoke rather according to the 
opinion of others than from his own feelings, is utterly im- 
probable; since he evidently appears to have spoken from the 
anguish of his inmost soul. We do not admit that God was 
ever hostile to him, or angry with him. For how could he be 
angry with his beloved Son, ‘in whom his soul delighted ? ” (g) 
or how could Christ, by his intercession, appease the Father for 
others, if the Father were incensed against him? But we af- 
firm, that he sustained the weight of the Divine severity ; since, 
being ‘“‘smitten and afflicted of God,” (2) he experienced from 
God all the tokens of wrath and vengeance. Wherefore, Hi- 
lary argues, that by this descent we have obtained the destruc- 
tion of death. And in other places he accords with our 
opinion ; as when he says, ‘‘’T'he cross, death, and hell, are our 
life.’ Again, in another place, ‘‘ The Son of God is in hell, 
but man is raised to heaven.” But why do I cite the testi- 
mony of a private person, when the apostle asserts the same 
thing, mentioning, as the reward of Christ’s victory, the de- 
liverance of them ‘‘ who, through fear of death, were all their 
lifetime subject to bondage?” (7) It was necessary, therefore, 
that he should overcome that fear, which naturally and inces- 
santly harasses all men; which he could not do without con-_ 
tending with it. Now, that his was not a common or trivial sor- 
row, will soon be more clearly evinced. ‘Thus, by contending 
with the power of the devil, with the dread of death, and with 
the pains of hell, he obtained the victory, and triumphed over ~ 
them, that in death we may no longer dread those things which 
our Prince has destroyed. 

XII. Here some contentious, though illiterate men, impelled 
rather by malice than by ignorance, exclaim against me, that I 
am guilty of an atrocious injury to Christ ; because it is utterly 
unreasonable that he should have any fear concerning the sal- 
vation of his soul. And then they aggravate the cavil, by pre- 
tending that I attribute despair to the Son of God, which is ~ 
contrary to faith. In the first place, it is presumptuous in 
them to raise a controversy concerning the fear and consterna- 
tion of Christ, which is so expressly asserted by the evangelists. 
For, before the approach of his death, he experienced a pertur- 
bation of spirit and depression of mind; but, in the actual 
struggle with it, he began to feel a greater degree of conster- 
nation. If they say that this was only pretence, it is a most 
paltry subterfuge. We ought, therefore, as Ambrose justly ad- 
vises, fearlessly to acknowledge the sorrow of Christ, unless we 
are ashamed of his cross. And, indeed, if his soul had expe- 
rienced no punishment, he would have been only a Redeemer 


(g) Isaiah xlii. 1. (h) Isaiah liii. 4. (i) Heb. ii. 15. 


~~ 


CHAP. XvI.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 467 


for the body. It was necessary for him to combat, in order to 
raise up those who lay prostrate on the earth ; and his heaven- 
ly glory is so far from being diminished by this, that his good- 
ness, which is never sufficiently celebrated, is conspicuous in 
his voluntary and unreluctant assumption of our infirmities. 
Hence that consolation which the apostle offers us under our 
anxieties and sorrows, that this Mediator has experienced our 
infirmities, in order that he might be the more ready to succour 
the wretched.(7) 'They pretend, that what is intrinsically bad 
cannot be justly attributed to Christ; as though they were 
wiser than the Spirit of God, who connects these two things 
together, that Christ ‘‘ was in all points tempted like as we are, 
yet without sin.” We have no reason, therefore, to be alarmed 
by the infirmity of Christ, to which he was not compelled by 
violence or necessity, but induced merely by his mercy and 
love for us voluntarily to submit himself. But none of his 
voluntary sufferings for us have been any diminution of his 
power. ‘These captious objectors, however, are deceived in 
one point; they do not perceive that this infirmity in Christ 
was perfectly free from every stain of guilt, because he always 
kept himself within the limits of obedience. For, because no 
moderation can be discovered in the corruption of our nature, 
where all our passions transgress all bounds with impetuous 
violence, they erroneously measure the Son of God by this 
standard. But he being innocent, and free from every defect, 
all his affections were governed by a moderation which ad- 
mitted of no excess. Whence it was very possible for him to 
resemble us in sorrow, fear, and dread, and yet, in this respect, 
to be very different from us. Refuted here, they proceed to 
another cavil; that, although Christ was afraid of death, yet 
he was not afraid of the malediction and wrath of God, from 
which he knew himself to be safe. But let the pious reader 
consider how much honour it reflects on Christ, that he was 
more delicate and timorous than the generality of mankind. 
Robbers and other malefactors obstinately rush forward to 
death; many men nobly despise it; others calmly submit to 
it. But what constancy or magnanimity would the Son of God 
have discovered, in being astonished and almost struck dead 
with the fear of it? For it is related of him, what might 
_ generally be accounted a prodigy, that through the vehemence 
of his agonies, drops of blood flowed from his face. Nor did 
he exhibit this spectacle to the eyes of others; he sent up his 
groans to his Father, in the secrecy of retirement. And every 
doubt is removed by the necessity that there was for angels to 
descend from heaven, to support him with unusual consolation. 


(j) Heb. iv. 5 


468 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 11 


What disgraceful effeminacy, as I have suggested, would this 
have been, to be so distressed by the fear of a common death, 
as to be in a bloody sweat, and incapable of being comforted 
without the presence of angels! What! does not this prayer, 
which he repeated three times, ‘‘O my Father, if it be possible, 
let this cup pass from me,” (kK) proceeding from an incredible 
bitterness of soul, demonstrate that Christ had a more severe 
and arduous conflict than with acommon death? Whence it 
appears, that those ,triflers, with whom I am now disputing, 
presumptuously chatter about things which they know not; 
because they never seriously considered the nature or the im- 
portance of our redemption from the Divine judgment. But it 
is our wisdom. to have a clear understanding how much our 
salvation cost the Son of God. If any one inquire whether 
Christ was then descending to hell, when he deprecated death, 
I reply, that this was the prelude to it; whence we may con- 
clude what dreadful and horrible agonies he must have suffered, 
while he was conscious of standing at the tribunal of God ac- 
cused as a criminal on our account. But, although the Divine 
power of the Spirit concealed itself for a moment, to give place 
to the infirmity of the flesh, yet we know, that the temptation 
arising from a sense of grief and fear was such as was not re- 
pugnant to faith. And thus was fulfilled what we find in the 
sermon of Peter, “ that it was not possible that he should be 
holden of the pains of death ;’’ (2) because, when he perceived 
himself, as it were, deserted by God, still he relaxed not in the 
least from his confidence in his Father’s goodness. ‘This is 
evident from his celebrated invocation, when, through the 
vehemence of grief, he exclaimed, ‘My God, my God, why 
hast thou forsaken me?” (m) For notwithstanding his ex- 
treme agony, yet he continues to call God his God, even when 
he complains that he is forsaken by him. Now, this serves to 
refute the error of Apollinaris, and also of those who were 
called Monothelites. Apollinaris pretended that the eternal 
Spirit supplied the place of a soul in Christ, so that he was but 
half a man, as though he could expiate our sins without 
obedience to the Father. But where was the disposition or 
will, requisite to obedience, but in his soul? which we know 
was “troubled,” (7) in order to dissipate all our fears, and obtain 
peace and rest for ours. Moreover, in opposition to the Mono- 
thelites, we see, that what was contrary to his will as man, 
was agreeable to his will as God. I say nothing of his over- 
coming the fear of which we have spoken, by a contrary dis- 
position. For there is a manifest appearance of contrariety 
when he says, ‘‘ Father, save me from this hour: but for this 


(k) Matt. xxvi.39 (0) Acts ii. 24. (m) Matt. xxvii. 46. (a) ‘John xii.27 


CHAP. XVI.| CHRisTIAN RELIGION. 469 


cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name.” (0) 
Yet, in this perplexity, there is no such want of moderation as 
is evident in us, even while we are exerting our most stre- 
hnuous endeavours to conquer ourselves. 

XII. Next follows his resurrection from the dead, without 
which all that we have said would be incomplete. For, since 
there appears nothing but infirmity in the cross, death, and 
burial of Christ, faith must proceed beyond all these things, 
to be furnished with sufficient strength. Wherefore, although 
our salvation is perfectly accomplished by his death, because 
by that we are reconciled to God, a satisfaction is given to his 
righteous judgment, the curse is removed, and the punishment 
sustained, yet we are said to have been “ begotten again to a 
lively hope,” not by his death, but ‘‘by his resurrection: from 
the dead.” (p) For as at his resurrection he appeared the con- 
queror of death, so it is on his resurrection that our faith prin- 
cipally rests. ‘This is better expressed in the words of Paul, 
when he says, that Christ “ was delivered for our offences, and 
was raised again for our justification ;” (q) as though he had 
said, that sin was removed by his death, and righteousness re- 
newed and restored by his resurrection. For how was it possi- 
ble for him by dying to liberate us from death, if he had him- 
self remained under its power? how could he have obtained 
the victory for-us, if he had been vanquished in the contest ? 
Wherefore we ascribe our salvation partly to the death of 
Christ, and partly to his resurrection ; we believe that sin was 
abolished, and death destroyed, by the former ; that righteous- 
ness was restored, and life established, by the latter; yet so 
that the former discovers its power and efficacy in us by means 
of the latter. ‘Therefore Paul asserts that he was ‘declared to 
be the Son of God, by the resurrection from the dead ;” (r) 
because he then displayed his heavenly power, which is both a 
lucid mirror of his Divinity, and a firm support of our faith. 
So, in another place, he says, that ‘‘ he was crucified through 
weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God.’ (s) In the 
same sense, in another place, treating of perfection, he says, 
“that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection.” (¢) 
Yet, immediately after, he adds, ‘‘ the fellowship of his suffer- 
ings, and conformity to his death.” In perfect harmony with 
this, is the following declaration of Peter: ‘‘ God raised him up 
from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope 
might be in God:”’(w) not that faith totters when it rests on 
- his death ; but because “the power df God,” which “ keeps us 
through faith,’ (v) chiefly discovers itself in his resurrection 


(0) John xii. 27, 28. (r) Rom. i. 4. (w) 1 Peter i. 21. 
(p) 1 Peter i. 3 (s) 2 Cor. xiii. 4. (v) 1 Peter i. 5. 
(g) Rom. iv. 25, (¢) Phil. iii. 10. 


4.70 ; INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK I 


Let us remember, therefore, that whenever mention is made of 
his death alone, it comprehends also what strictly belongs te 
his resurrection ; and that the same figure of speech is applied 
to the word resurrection, whenever it is used without any men- 
tion of his death, so that it connects with it what is peculiarly 
applicable to his death. But since it was by rising from the 
dead that he obtained the palm of victory, to become the resur- 
rection and the life, Paul justly contends, that, ‘‘if Christ be 
not risen, then is” the ‘“ preaching ”’ of the gospel ‘“ vain, and” 
our ‘faith is also vain.” (v) Therefore, in another place, af- 
ter having gloried in the death of Christ in opposition to all 
the fears of condemnation, he adds, by way of amplification, 
‘Yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right 
hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” (w) Be- 
sides, as we have before stated, that the mortification of our 
flesh depends on communion with his cross, so it must also be 
understood, that we obtain another benefit, corresponding to 
that, from his resurrection. ‘The apostle says, ‘‘If we have 
been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be 
also in the likeness of his resurrection: even so we also should 
walk in newness of life.”” (2) Therefore, in another place, as, 
from our being dead with Christ, he deduces an argument for 
the mortification of our members which are upon the earth, (y) 
so also, because we are risen with Christ, he thence infers that 
we should seek those things which are above, and not those 
which are on the earth.(z) By which expressions we are not 
only invited to walk in newness of life, after the example of 
Christ raised from the dead, but are taught that our regenera- 
tion to righteousness is effected by his power. We derive also 
a third benefit from his resurrection, having received, as it 
were, a pledge to assure us of our own resurrection, of which 
his clearly affords the most solid foundation and evidence. 
This ‘subject the apostle discusses more at large in the First 
Kpistle to the Corinthians.(a@) But it must be remarked by 
the way, that when he is said to have ‘risen from the dead,” 
this phrase expresses the reality both of his death and of his 
resurrection ; as though it were said, that he died the same 
death as other men naturally die, and received immortality in 
the same body which he had assumed in a mortal state. 

XIV. His resurrection is properly followed in the Creed by 
his ascension to heaven. For though Christ began to make a 
more illustrious display of his glory and power at his resurrec- 
tion, having now laid aside the abject and ignoble condition of 
this mortal life, and the ignominy of the cross, yet his ascen- 
sion into heaven was the real commencement of his reign. 


(v) 1 Cor. xv. 14, 17. (xz) Rom. vi. 4, 5. (z) Col. iii. 1, 2. 
(w) Rom. viii. 34. (y) Col. iit. 5 (a) 1 Cor. xv. " 


Ss 


* 


CHAP. XVI. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 471 


This the apostle shows, when he informs us, that he ‘“ ascended 
that he might fill all things.”(6) Here, in an apparent con- 
tradiction, he suggests to us that there is a beautiful harmony, 
because Christ departed from us, that his departure might be 
more useful to us than that presence, which, during his continu- 
ance on earth, confined itself within the humble mansion of 
his body. 'Therefore John, after having related that remark- 
able invitation, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and 
drink,” subjoins, that “ the Holy Ghost was not yet given; be- 
cause that Jesus was not yet glorified.” (c) This the Lord 
himself also declared to his disciples: ‘It is expedient for you 
that | go.away; for if | go not away, the Comforter will not 
come unto you.” (d) Now, he proposes a consolation for his 
corporeal absence, that he ‘‘ will not leave them comfortless, or 
orphans, but will come again to them,’ in a manner invisible 
indeed, but more desirable ; because they were then taught by 
amore certain experience that the authority which he enjoys, 
and the power which he exercises, is sufficient for the faithful, 
not only to procure them a blessed life, but to insure them a 
happy death. And, indeed, we see how largely he then in- 
creased the effusions of his Spit, how greatly he advanced the 
magnificence of his reign, and what superior power he exerted 
both in assisting his friends, and in defeating his enemies. 
Being received up into heaven, therefore he removed his cor- 
poreal presence from our view ; not that he might no longer be 
present with the faithful who were still in a state of pilgrimage 
on earth, but that he might govern both heaven and earth by a 
more efficacious energy. Moreover, his promise, that he would 
be with us till the end of the world, he has performed by this 
his ascension ; by which, as his body was elevated above all 
heavens, so his power and energy have been diffused and ex- 
.tended beyond all the limits of heaven and earth. In repre- 
senting this, | would prefer the language of Augustine to my 
own. “Christ,” says he, “was about to go by death to the 
right hand of the Father, whence he will hereafter come to 
judge the living and the dead; and this by a corporeal pre- 
sence, according to the rule of faith and sound doctrine. For 
in his spiritual presence with them, he was to come soon after 
his ascension.’”’ And elsewhere he treats this subject in a man; 
ner still more diffuse and explicit. By his ineffable and invisi- 
ble grace, Christ has fulfilled his declaration, ‘Lo, Iam with 
you alway, even unto the end of the world.” (e) But with 
respect to the body which the Word assumed, which was born 
of the Virgin, which was apprehended by the Jews, which 
was fixed to the cross, which was taken down from the cross, 


(b) Eph. iv. 10. (c) John vu. 37, 39. (d) John xvi. 7. (e) Matt. xxvui. 20 


472. INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 


which was folded in linen, which was laid in the sepulchre, 
which was manifested at the resurrection, there has been an 
accomplishment of this prediction: ‘‘ Ye shall not have me 
always with you.” Why? Because in his corporeal presence. 
he conversed with his disciples for forty days, and while they 
were attending him, seen but not followed by them, he as- 
cended into heaven ; and he is not here, for he sits there at 
the right hand of the Father; and yet he is here, for he has 
not withdrawn the presence of his majesty. In the presence of 
his majesty, therefore, we have Christ always with us; but 
with respect to his corporeal presence, he said with truth to his 
disciples, ‘‘Me ye have not always.” For the Church enjoyed 
his corporeal presence for a few days; now she enjoys him by 
faith, and does not behold him with her eyes. ; 

XV. Wherefore it is immediately added, that he ts seated at 
the right hand of the Father ; whichis a similitude borrowed 
from princes, who have their assistants, to whom they depute 
the exercise of the government. So Christ, in whom the Fa- 
ther determines to be exalted, and by whose medium he 
chooses to reign, is said to have been received to his right 
hand; as though it were said, that he had been maugurated in 
the government of heaven and earth, and had solemnly entered 
on the actual administration of the power committed to him ; 
and not only that he has entered on it, but that he continues 
in it, till he descends to judgment. For so the apostle explams 
it, in the following words: ‘“ The Father hath set him at his own 
right hand, far above all principality, and power, and might, 
and dominion, and every name that is named, not only im this 
world, but also in that which is to come; and hath put all 
things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all 
things to the church,” &c.(g¢) We see the end of this session ; 
it is, that all creatures, both celestial and terrestrial, may ad- 
mire his majesty, be governed by his hand, obey his will, and 
be subject to his power. And the only design of the apostles 
in their frequent mention of it, is to teach us that all things are 
committed to his government. Wherefore they who suppose 
that nothing but blessedness is signified in this artiele, are 
jot right in that opinion. It affects not our argument, that 
Stephen declares that he sees Christ “standing,” (h) beeause 
the present question relates, not to the posture of his body, 
but to the majesty of his dominion ; so that sitting signifies no 
other than presiding at the tribunal of heaven. 

XVI. Hence faith receives many advantages. For it per- 
ceives, that by his ascension the Lord has opened the way to 
the kingdom of heaven, which had been stopped by Adam. 


(g) Eph. i. 20—22. (hk) Acts vii. 55, 56. 


CHAP. XVI. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 473 


For since he entered there in our nature, and as it were in our 
names, it follows that, as the apostle expresses it, we now “sit 
together ” with him “in heavenly places,’ (7) because we not 
only hope for heaven, but already possess it in our Head. Be- 
sides, faith knows that his residence with his Father conduces 
greatly to our advantage. [or being entered into a sanctuary, 
which is not of human erection, (k) he continually appears in 
the presence of the Father as our advocate and intercessor ; (2) 
he attracts the eyes of the Father to his righteousness, so as to 
avert them from our sins; he reconciles him to us, so as to pro- 
cure for us, by his intercession, a way of access to his throne, 
which he replenishes with grace and mercy, but which other- 
wise would be pregnant with horror to miserable sinners. (7) 
In the third place, faith has an apprehension of his power, in 
which consists our strength, our fortitude, our wealth, and our 
triumph over hell. For ‘‘ when he ascended up on high, he led 
captivity captive,’ (2) spoiled his enemies, and enriched his 
people, and daily loads them with spiritual favours. He sits, 
therefore, on high, that from thence he may shed forth his 
power upon us, that he may animate us with spiritual life, that 
he may sanctify us by his Spirit, that he may adorn his Church 
with a variety of graces, and defend it by his protection from 
every-calamity, that by the strength of his hand he may re- 
strain the ferocious enemies of his cross and of our salvation ; 
finally, that he may retain all power in heaven and in earth; 
till he shall have overthrown all his enemies, who are also 
ours, and completed the edification of his Church. And this 
is the true state of his kingdom, this the power which the Fa- 
ther has conferred on him, till he completes the last act by 
coming to judge the living and the dead. 

XVII. Christ gives his servants unequivocal tokens of the 
presence of his power; but because on earth his kingdom is in 
some measure concealed under the meanness of the flesh, faith 
is, for a very good reason, called to meditate on that visible pre- 
sence which he will manifest at the last day. For he will de- 
scend from heaven in a visible form, in the same manner in 
which he was seen to ascend; (0) and will appear to all with 
the ineffable majesty of his kingdom, with the splendour of 
immortality, with the infinite power of Deity, and with a host 
of angels.(p) From thence, therefore, we are commanded to 
expect him as our Redeemer at the last day, when he will se- 
parate the sheep from the goats, the elect from the reprobate ° 
and there will not be an individual of either the living or the 
dead that can escape his judgment. For from the most remote, 


(t) Eph. ii. 6. (lt) Rom. viii. 34. (n) Eph. iv. 8. 
(k) Heb. ix. 24. (m) Heb. iv. 16. (0) Acts i. 11. 
(p) Matt. xxiv. 30; xxv. 31. 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17. 

60 


VOL. I. 


4,74, INSTITUTES OF THE [Book IL. 


corners of the world they will hear the sound of the trumpet, 
with which all mankind will be summoned to his tribunal, 
both those whom that day shall find alive, and those whom 
death shall previously have removed from the society of the 
living. ‘There are some who understand the words quick, or 
living, and dead, in a different sense. And indeed we find 
that some of the fathers hesitated respecting the exposition of 
this clause; but the sense we have given, being plain and 
clear, is far more consistent with the design of the Creed, 
which appears to-have been composed for the common people. 
Nor is this repugnant to the assertion of the apostle, that ‘it is 
appointed unto men once to die.” (xX) For although they who 
shall survive in this mortal life till the last judgment, shall not 
die in a natural manner and order, yet that change, which 
they shall experience, since it will resemble death, may with- 
out impropriety be designated by that appellation. It is certain 
indeed that “all shall not sleep, but all shall be changed.” (2) 
What'is that? In one moment their mortal life will be ex- 
tinguished and absorbed, and will be transformed into a nature 
entirely new. ‘This extinction of the flesh no man can deny 
to be death. Nevertheless it remains a truth, that the living 
and the dead will be summoned to judgment ; for “the dead in 
Christ shall rise first: then they which are alive and remain 
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet 
the Lord in the air.” (m) And it is very probable that this 
article was taken from the sermon of Peter, (7) and from the 
solemn charge of Paul to Timothy. (0) | 

XVIII. It is a source of peculiar consolation to hear that he 
will preside at the judgment, who has already destined us to 
participate with himself the honour of sitting in judgment with 
him, so far will he be from ascending the tribunal to condemn 
us. For how could a most merciful prince destroy his own 
people ? how could a head scatter his own members? how 
could an advocate condemn his own clients? For if the apos- 
tle ventures to exclaim, that no one can condemn us while 
Christ intercedes for us, (p) it is much more certain that 
Christ himself, our intercessor, will not condemn those whose 
cause he has undertaken, and whom he has engaged to support. 
Indeed, it is no inconsiderable security, that we shall stand 
- before no other tribunal than that of our Redeemer, from whom 
we are to expect salvation; and that he, who by the gospel 
now promises eternal life, will at the judgment ratify and per- 
form the promise which he has given. The design of the F'a- 
_ther in honouring the Son by “committing all juagment to 


(k) Heb. ix. 27. (m) 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17. (c) 2 Tim. 1v. 1. 
(lt) 1 Cor. xv. 51. (n) Acts x. 42. (:) Rom. viii. 34 


CHAP. XvI.| CHRISTIAN RELIGION. AT5 


him,” (¢) was, that he might relieve the consciences of his peo- 
ple from all fear concerning the judgment. Thus far I have 
followed the order of the Apostles’ Creed ; because, while i 
comprises, in a few words, the principal points of redemption, 
\t may serve to give usa distinct and separate view of those 
particulars respecting Christ which merit our attention. I style 
it the Apostles’ Creed, but am not at all solicitous to know who 
was the composer of it. The.ancient writers agree in ascribing 
it to the apostles, either from a belief that it was written and 
published by their common concurrence, or from an opinion 
that this compendium, being faithfully collected from the doc- 
trine delivered by them, was worthy of being sanctioned by 
such a title. And whoever was the author of it, I have no 
doubt that it has been publicly and universally received as a 
confession of faith from the first origin of the Church, and 
even from the days of the apostles. Nor is it probable that it 
was composed by any private individual, since from time im- 
memorial it has evidently been esteemed as of sacred authority 
by all the pious. But what we ought principally to regard, is 
beyond all controversy —that it comprehends a complete ac- 
count of our faith in a concise and distinct order, and that 
every thing it contains is confirmed by decisive testimonies of 
Scripture. ‘This being ascertained, it is of no use anxiously to 
inquire, or to contend with any one, respecting its author, un- 
less it be not sufficient for any one to have the unerring truth 
of the Holy Spirit, without knowing either by whose mouth it 
was uttered, or by whose hand it was written. 

XIX. Since we see that the whole of our salvation, and all 
the branches of it, are comprehended in Christ, we must be 
cautious not to alienate from him the least possible portion of 
it. If we seek salvation, we are taught by the name of JESUS, 
that it is in him; if we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they 
will be found in his unction ; strength, in his dominion ; purity, 
in his conception; indulgence discovers itself in his nativity, 
by which he was made to resemble us in all things, that he 
might learn to condole with us; if we seek redemption, it will 
be found in his passion; absolution, in his condemnation; re- 
mission of the curse, in his cross; satisfaction, in his sacrifice ; 
purification, in his blood; reconciliation, in his descent into 
hell; mortification of the flesh, in his sepulchre ; newness of 
life and immortality, in his resurrection; the inheritance of 
the celestial kingdom, in his entrance into heaven ; protection, 
security, abundance, and enjoyment of all blessings, in his 
kingdom ; a fearless expectation of the judgment, in the judi- 
cial authority committed to him. Finally blessings of every 


(q) John vy. 22. 


476 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1. 


kind are deposited in him; let us draw from his treasury, and 
from no other source, till our desires are satisfied. For they 
who, not content with him alone, are carried hither and thither 
into a variety of hopes, although they fix their eyes principally 
on him, nevertheless deviate from the right way in the diver- 
sion of any part of their attention to another quarter. ‘This 
distrust, however, cannot intrude, where the plenitude of his 
blessings-has once been truly known. 


CHAPTER XVIL. 


CHRIST TRULY AND PROPERLY SAID TO HAVE MERITED THE 
GRACE OF GOD AND SALVATION FOR US. 


We must devote an additional Chapter to the solution of 
this question. For there are some men, more*subtle than or- 
thodox, who, though they confess that Christ obtained salvation 
for us, yet cannot bear the word merit, by which they suppose 
the grace of God is obscured. So they maintain that Christ is 
only the instrument or minister, not, as he is called by Peter, 
the Author, or Leader, and “ Prince of life.” (q) I grant, in- 
deed, if any man would oppose Christ simply and alone to the 
judgment of God, there would be no room for merit ; because 
it is impossible to find in man any excellence which can merit 
the favour of God; nay, as Augustine most truly observes, 
“The brightest illustration of predestination and grace is the 
Saviour himself, the man Christ Jesus, who has acquired this 
character in his human nature, without any previous merit 
either of works or of faith. Let any one tell me, how that 
man merited the honour of being assumed into one person with 
the Word, who is coéternal with the Father, and so becoming 
the only begotten Son of God. ‘Thus the fountain of grace 
appears in our Head, and from him diffuses its streams through 
all his members according to their respective capacities. Every 
one, from the commencement of his faith, is made a Christian, 
by the same grace, by which this man, from the commence- 
ment of his existence, was made the Christ.”? Again, in another 
treatise, Augustine says, ‘“‘’There is not a more illustrious ex- 
ample of predestination than the Mediator himself. For he 
who made of the seed of David this righteous man, so that 
he never was unrighteous, without any previous merit of his 


(q) Acts ii. 15. 


CHAP. xvul.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 477 


will, converts unrighteous persons into righteous ones, and 
makes them members of that Head,’ &c. When we speak of 
the merit of Christ, therefore, we do not consider him as the 
origin of it, but we ascend to the ordination of God, which is 
the first cause ; because it was of his mere good pleasure, that 
God appointed him Mediator to procure salvation for us. And 
thus it betrays ignorance to oppose the merit of Christ to the 
mercy of God. For it isa common maxim, that between two 
things, of which one succeeds or is subordinate to the other, 
there can be no opposition. ‘There is no reason, therefore, why 
the justification of men should not be gratuitous from the mere 
mercy of God, and why at the same time the merit of Christ 
should not intervene, which is subservient to the mercy of God. 
But to our works are directly and equally opposed the gra- 
tuitous favour of God and the obedience of Christ, each in its 
respective place. For Christ could merit nothing except by 
the good pleasure of God, by which he had been predestinated 
to appease the Divine wrath by his sacrifice, and to abolish our 
transgressions by his obedience. ‘'T’o conclude, since the merit 
of Christ depends solely on the grace of God, which appointed 
this method of salvation for us, therefore his merit and that 
grace are with equal propriety opposed to all the righteousnesses 
of men. 

II. This distinction is gathered from numerous passages of 
Scripture. ‘‘God so loved the world, that he gave his only 
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not pe- 
rish.” (r) We see that the love of God holds the first place, as 
the supreme and original cause, and that faith in Christ follows 
as the second and proximate cause. If it be objected, that 
Christ is only the formal cause, this diminishes his merit more 
than the words now quoted will bear. For if we obtain right- 
eousness by a faith which relies on him, it is in him we are to 
seek the cause of our salvation. ‘This is evident from many 
passages. ‘‘ Not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and 
sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (s) These 
words clearly demonstrate, that to remove every obstacle in 
the way of his love towards us, God appointed a method of 
reconciliation in Christ. And there is much contained in the 
word “propitiation;”’ for God, in a certain ineffable manner, 
at the same time that he loved us, was nevertheless angry 
with us, till he was reconciled in Christ. This is implied in 
the following passages: ‘He is the propitiation for our 
sins.” (¢) Again: ‘It pleased the Father, having made peace 
through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things 
unto himself.” (v) Again: “God was in Christ, reconciling 


(r) John iii. 16. — (s) 1 John iv. 10. (t) 1 John ii. 2. (v) Col. i. 19, 20. 


A478 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 11. 


the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto 
them.” (w) Again: ‘‘He hath made us accepted in the Be- 
loved.” (2) Again: “ That he might reconcile both unto God 
in one body by the cross.”(y) The reason of this mystery 
may be learned from the first chapter of the Epistle to the 
Ephesians, where Paul, having taught that we are chosen in 
Christ, adds at the same time, that we are accepted in him. 
How did God begin to favour those whom he had loved before 
the creation of the world, but by the manifestation which he 
made of his love when he was reconciled by the blood of 
Christ? For since God is the fountain of all righteousness, he 
must necessarily be the enemy and judge of every sinner. 
Wherefore the beginning of his love is the righteousness de- 
scribed by Paul: “‘ He hath made him to be sin for us, who 
knew no sin; that we may be made the righteousness of God 
in him.’ (z) For his meaning is, that by the sacrifice of 
Christ we obtain gratuitous righteousness, so as to be accepta- 
ble to God, though by nature we are the children of wrath, 


and alienated from him by sin. This distinction is indicated 


also wherever the grace of Christ is connected with the love 
of God; whence it follows that our Saviour bestows on us 
what he has purchased ; for otherwise it would be inconsistent 
to ascribe this praise to him distinctly from the Father, that 
grace is his, and proceeds from him. . 

III. Now, that Christ by his obedience has really procured 
and merited grace from the Father for us, is certainly and just- 
ly concluded from various passages of Scripture. For I assume 
this as granted: if Christ has satisfied for our sins; if he has 
sustained the punishment due to us; if he has appeased God 
by his obedience ; in a word, if he has suffered, the just for the 
unjust, — then salvation has been obtained for us by his right- 
eousness, which is the same as being merited. But according 
to the testimony of Paul, ‘‘ We were reconciled by his death, 
by whom we have received the atonement,” or reconcilia- 
tion.(a@) Now, there is no room for reconciliation without a 
previous offence. ‘The sense therefore is, that God, to whom 
our sins had rendered us odious, has been appeased by the 
death of his Son, so as to be propitious to us. And the anti- 
thesis, which follows just after, is worthy of careful observation ' 
‘“As by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so 
by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” (6) 
For the meaning is, that as by the sin of Adam we were alien- 
ated from God and devoted to destruction, so by the obedience 
of Christ we are received into favour, as righteous persons. 


(w) 2 Cor. v. 19. (y) Eph. ii. 16. (a) Rom. vy. 10, 11. 
(z) Eph. i. 6. (z) 2 Cor. v. 21. (6) Rom. v. 19. — 


CuAP. Xvit.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 479 


Nor does the future tense of the verb exclude present right- 
eousness; as appears from the context. For he had before 
said, ‘The free gift is of many offences unto justification.” (c) 

[V. But when we say that grace is procured for us by the 
merit of Christ, we intend, that we have been purified by his 
blood, and that his death was an expiation for sins. ‘“ The 
blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.” (d) ‘This 
blood is shed for the remission of sins.” (e) If the non-impu- 
tation of our sins to us be the effect of the blood which he 
shed, it follows that this was the price of satisfaction to the 
justice of God. ‘This is confirmed by: the declaration of the 
Baptist: ‘ Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the 
sin of the world.’(f) For he opposes Christ to all the 
sacrifices of the law, to show that what they prefigured 
was accomplished in him alone. Now we know what Mo- 
ses frequently says—that an atonement shall be made for 
sin, and it shall be forgiven. In short, the ancient figures 
give us a fine exhibition of the power and efficacy of the 
death of Christ. And the apostle copiously discusses this 
subject in the Epistle to the Hebrews, judiciously assu- 
ming this as a fundamental principle, that “ without shed- 
ding of blood there is no remission.’”? Whence he infers, that 
Christ has ‘‘once appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice 
of himself; and that ‘“he was offered to bear the sins of 
many.’ (g) He had already said, that ‘‘ Not by the blood of 
soats and calves, but by his own blood; he entered once into 
the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption.” (h) Now, 
when he argues in this manner, ‘If the blood of bulls and of 
goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanc- 
tifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the 
blood of Christ purge your conscience from dead works!” (7) 
it evidently appears that we too much undervalue the grace of 
Christ, unless we attribute to his sacrifice an expiatory, placa- 
tory, and satisfactory efficacy. Therefore it is immediately 
added, “He is the mediator of the New Testament, that by 
means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that 
were under the first testament, they which are called might 
receive the promise of eternal inheritance.” (x) But we 
ought particularly to consider the relation described by Paul, 
that he was ‘‘ made a curse for us.” (J) For it would be un- 
necessary, and consequently absurd, for Christ to be loaded 
with a curse, except in order to discharge the debts due from 
others, and thereby to obtain a righteousness for them. The 
testimony of Isaiah likewise is clear, that “the chastisement 


(c) Rom. v.16. — (f) John i. 29. (t) Heb. ix. 13, 14. 
(d) 1 John i. 7. ‘(g) Heb. ix. 22, 26, 28. (kK) Heb. ix. 15. 
(e) Matt. xxvi. 28. (kh) Heb. ix. 12. (lt) Gal. ii. 13. 


480 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 1. 


of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are 

healed.” (0) For if Christ had not made a satisfaction for our 
sins, he could not be said to have appeased God by suffering 
the punishment to which we were exposed. ‘This is confirmed 
by a subsequent clause: “ For the transgression of my people 
was he stricken.” (p) Let us add the interpretation of Peter, 
which will remove all difficulty, that ‘he bare our sins in his 
own body on the tree ; ”’(¢) which imports that the burden of 

condemnation, from which we have been relieved, was laid 
upon Christ. 

V. The apostles explicitly declare, that he paid a price 
to redeem us from the sentence of death: ‘ Being justified 
freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ 
Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation, through 
faith in his blood.” (r) Here Paul celebrates the grace of God, 
because he has given the price of our redemption in the death 
of Christ ; and then enjoins us to betake ourselves to his blood, 
that we may obtain righteousness, and may stand secure before 
the judgment of God. Peter confirms the same when he says, 
‘Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and 
gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb with- 
out blemish and without spot.” (s) For there would be no 
propriety in the comparison, unless this blood had been the 
price of satisfaction for sin; for which reason Paul says, “* Ye 
are bought with a price.” (¢) Nor would there be any truth in 
his other assertion, that ‘there is one Mediator, who gave 
himself a ransom,” (v) unless the punishment due to our de-— 
merits had been transferred to him. ‘Therefore the same 
apostle defines ‘‘redemption through his blood” to be “the 
forgiveness of sins ;’’ (w) as though he had said, We are justified 
or acquitted before God, because that blood is a complete satis- 
faction forus. This is consonant with the following passage, 
that ‘‘he blotted out the hand-writing, which was contrary to 
us, nailing it to his cross.” (z) For these words signify the 
payment or compensation which absolves us from guilt. 
There is great weight also in these words of Paul: “If right- 
eousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” (y) 
For hence we conclude, that we must seek from Christ what 
the law would confer upon any one who fulfilled it ; or, which 
is the same, that we obtain by the grace of Christ what God 
promised in the law to our works; “ which ’’ commandments 
‘if a man do, he shall live in them.” (z) This the apostle ~ 
confirms with equal perspicuity in his sermon at Antioch, as- 


(0) Isaiah liii. 5. (s) 1 Peter i. 18, 19. (x) Col. ii. 14. 
(p) Isaiah liii. 8. (t) 1 Cor. vi. 20. (y) Gal. ii. 21. 
(q) 1 Peter ii. 24. (v) 1 Tim. ii.5,6. - (z) Lev. xviii. 5. 
(r) Rom. iii. 24, 25. (w) Col. i. 14. 


CHAP. xvil.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. AS] 


serting that “by Christ all that believe are justified from all 
things, from which they could not be justified by the law of 
Moses.” (a) For if righteousness consist in an observance of 
the law, who can deny that Christ merited favour for us, when, 
by bearing this burden himself, he reconciles us to God, just 
as though we were complete observers of the law ourselves ? 
The same idea is conveyed in what he afterwards writes to 
the Galatians, that ‘‘God sent forth his Son, made under the 
law, to redeem them that were under the law.” (b) For what 
was the design of that subjection to the law, but to procure a 
righteousness for us, by undertaking to perform that which we 
were not able todo? Hence that imputation of righteousness 
without works, of which Paul treats;(c) because that right- 
eousness which is found in Christ alone is accepted as ours. 
Nor indeed is the “‘flesh ” of Christ called our ‘ food” (d) for 
any other reason but because we find in it the substance of 
life Now, this virtue proceeds solely from the crucifixion of 
the Son of God, as the price of our righteousness. Thus Paul 
says, ‘‘ Christ hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacri- 
fice to God for a sweet-smelling savour.’ (e) And in another 
place, “‘He was delivered for our offences, and was raised 
again for our justification.” (f) Hence it is inferred, not only 
that salvation is given us through Christ, but that the Father 
is now propitious to us for hissake. For it cannot be doubted, 
but this, which God declares in a figurative way by Isaiah, is 
perfectly fulfilled in him: ‘TI will” do it ‘for mine own sake, 
and for my servant David’s sake.’’(g@) Of this the apostle isa 
suflicient witness, when he says, ‘‘ Your sins are forgiven you 
for his name’s sake.” (h) For although the name of Christ is 
not expressed, yet John, in his usual manner, designates him by 
the pronoun aires, he. In this sense the Lord declares, “ As I 
live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live 
by me.” (7) With which corresponds the following declaration 
of Paul: “Unto you it is given for the love of Christ (ireg 
Xgirov) not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his 
sake.’ (k) ! 

VI. But the inquiry made by Lombard and the schoolmen, 
whether Christ merited for himself, discovers as much foolish 
curiosity, as the assertion does presumption when they affinr 
it. For what necessity was there for the only begotten Sor 
of God to descend, in order to make any new acquisition for 
himself? And God by the publication of his own counsel re- 
moves every doubt. For it is said, not that the Father con- 


(a) Acts xiii. 39. (e) Eph. v. 2. (h) 1 John ii. 12, 
(b) Gal. iv. 4, 5. (f) Rom. iv. 25. (t) John vi. 57. 
(c) Rom. iv. 5. (g) Isaiah xxxvii 35. (kK) Phil. i. 29. 


(d) John vi. 55. 
VOL. I. 61 


482 INSTITUTES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [BOOK II. 


sulted the benefit of the Son in his merits, but that he “ de- 
livered him to death, and spared him not,” (2) ‘ because he 
loved the world.” (m) And the language of the prophets is 
worthy of observation: “‘ Unto usa Child is born.” (mn) Again: 
‘Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; behold, thy King 
cometh unto thee.” (0) There would otherwise be no force in 
that confirmation of his love, which Paul celebrates, that he 
‘died for us, while we were enemies.” (p) For we infer from 
this, that he had no regard to himself; and this he clearly af- 
firms himself, when he says, ‘‘ For their sakes I sanctify my- 
self.” (q) For by transferring the benefit of his sanctity to 
others, he declares that he makes no acquisition for himself. 
And it is highly worthy of our observation, that in order to de- 
vote himself wholly to our salvation, Christ in a manner forgot 
himself. ‘To support this notion of theirs, the schoolmen pre- 
posterously pervert the following passage of Paul: “‘ Wherefore 
also God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name 
which is above every name.’’(r) For, considered as a man, 
by what merits could he obtain such dignity as to be the Judge 
of the world and the Head of angels, to enjoy the supreme 
dominion of God, and to be the residence of that majesty, the 
thousandth part of which can never be approached by all the 
abilities of men and of angels? But the solution is easy and 
complete, that Paul, in that passage, is not treating of the cause 
of the exaltation of Christ, but only showing the consequence 
of it, that he might be an example to us; nor did he mean any 
other than what is declared in another place, that ‘‘ Christ 
ought to have suffered, and to enter into his glory.” (s) 


(lt) Rom. viii. 32. (n) Isaiah ix. 6. (p) Rom. v. 8, 10 (r) Phil. ii. 9. 
(m, John iii. 16. (0) Zech. ix. 9. (q) John xvii. 19. (s) Luke xxiv. 26 


wee eb Uh ES 


OF THE 


CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 


BOOK III. 


ON THE MANNER OF RECEIVING THE GRACE OF CHRIST, 
THE BENEFITS WHICH WE DERIVE FROM IT, AND THE EF- 
FECTS WHICH FOLLOW IT. 


ARGUMENT. 


Tue two former books relate to God the Creator and Redeemer. This 
treats of God the Sanctifier, or of the operations of the Holy Spirit 
‘towards our salvation, being an accurate exposition of the third part 
of the Apostles’ Creed. 

The principal topics of this are seven, relating chiefly to one ‘object, 
the doctrine of faith. 

First. Since our enjoyment of Christ and all his benefits depends on 
the secret and special operation of the Holy Spirit, it discusses this 
operation, which is the foundation of faith, of newness of life, and 
of all holy exercises—Chap. I. 

Secondly. Faith being as it were the hand by which we embrace Christ 
the Redeemer, as offered to us by the Holy Spirit, it next adds a 
complete description of faith—Chap. II. 

Thirdly. To improve our knowledge of this salutary faith, it proceeds — 
to show the effects which necessarily result from it; and contends 
that true penitence is always the consequence of true faith. But first 
it proposes the doctrine of repentance in general—Chap. III.; and 
then treats of Popish penance and its constituent parts—Chap. IV, 


ABA ARGUMENT. _ [Boox m1. 


—of indulgences and purgatorial fire—Chap. V. But institutes a 
particular discussion of the two branches of true penitence, the 
mortification of the flesh, and the vivification of the spirit, or 
the life of a Christian, which is excellently described—Chap. VI 
VII. VI. IX. X. | 

Fourthly. In order to a clearer display of the advantages and conse- 
quences of this faith, it first treats of justification by faith—Chap. 
X1I.—then explains the questions which arise from it—Chap. XIL 
XI. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. —and, lastly, proceeds to é 
dissertation on Christian liberty, which is an appendage to justifi- 
cation—Chap. XIX. 

Fifthly. Next follows prayer, the principal exercise of faith, and the 
medium or instrument by which we daily receive blessings from 
God—Chap. XX. | 

Sixthly. But since the communication of Christ offered in the gospel 
is not embraced by men im general, but only by those whom the 
Lord bas favoured with the efficacy and peculiar grace of his Spirit, 
it obviates any supposition of absurdity, by subjoining a necessary 
and appropriate dissertation on the doctrine of Divine election— 
Chap. XXI. XXII. XXIIT. XXIV. 

Lastly. Since we are liable to various difficulties and troubles while 
exercised in the severe warfare which always attends the life of a 
Christian, it contends that this may be alleviated by meditating on 
the final resurrection ; and therefore adds a discourse on that subject 


—Chap. XXV. 


CHAPTER I. 


WHAT IS DECLARED CONCERNING CHRIST RENDERED PROFITABLE 
TO US BY THE SECRET OPERATION OF THE SPIRIT.’ 


We are now to examine how we obtain the enjoyment of. 
those blessings which the Father has conferred on his only 
begotten Son, not for his own private use, but to enrich the 
poor and needy. And first it must be remarked, that as long as 
there is a separation between Christ and us, all that he suffered 
and performed for the salvation of mankind is useless and una- 
vailing to us. ‘'Il’o communicate to us what he received from 
his Father, he must, therefore, become ours, and dwell within 
us. On this account he is called our “Head,” (a) and “the 


(a) Ephes. iv. 15 


— 


CHAP. I.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 485 


first-born among many brethren;”(b) and we, on the other 
hand, are said to be ‘‘grafted into him,” (c) and to “ put him 
on;” (d) for, as 1 have observed, whatever he possesses is 
nothing to us, till we are united to him. But though it be 
true that we obtain this by faith, yet, since we see that the 


communication of Christ, offered in the gospel, is not promis- - ‘ 


cuously embraced by all, reason itself teaches us to proceed 
further, and to inquire into the secret energy of the Spirit, by 
which we are introduced to the enjoyment of Christ and all his 
benefits. I have already treated of the eternal Deity and es- 
sence of the Spirit; let us now confine ourselves to this parti- 
cular point: Christ came thus by water and blood, that the 
Spirit may testify concerning him, in order that the salvation 
procured by him may not be lost to us. For as “there are 
three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and 
the Spirit,” so also “‘ there are three on earth, the spirit, the 
water, and the blood.” (e) Nor is this a useless repetition of 
the testimony of the Spirit, which we perceive to be engraven 
like a seal on our hearts, so that it seals the ablution and sacrifice 
of Christ. For which reason Peter also says, that believers are 
“elect through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience, and 
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.” (f) This passage sug- 
gests to us, that our souls are purified by the secret ablution of 
the Spirit, that the effusion of that sacred blood may not be in 
vain. For the same reason also Paul, when speaking of puri- 
fication and justification, says, we enjoy both ‘in the name 


of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” (g) The 


sum of all is this— that the Holy Spirit is the bond by which 
Christ efficaciously unites us to himself. And what we have 
advanced in the last book concerning his unction, tends to 
establish the same truth. 

Il. But as a further confirmation of this point, which is 
highly worthy of being understood, we must remember that 
Christ was endued with the Holy Spirit in a peculiar manner ; 
in order to separate us from the world, and introduce us into 
the hope of an eternal inheritance. Hence the Spirit is called 
“the Spirit of holiness;’’(h) not only because he animates 
and supports us by that general power which is displayed in 
mankind, and in all other creatures, but because he is the seed 
and root of a heavenly life within us. The principal topic, 
therefore, dwelt on by the prophets in celebrating the kingdom 
of Christ, is, that there would then be a more exuberant effu- 
sion of the Spirit. The most remarkable passage is that of 
Joel: “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh in those 


(6) Rom. viii. 29. (c) Rom. xi. 17. (d) Gal. iii. 27. (e) 1 John » 7,.8. 
(f) 1 Pet. i. 2. (g) 1 Cor. vi. 11. (h) Rom. i. 4. 


486 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book m1. 


days.” (7) For, though the prophet seems to restrict the gifts 
of the Spirit to the exercise of the prophetic function, yet he 
signifies, in a figurative way, that God, by the illumination of 
his Spirit, will make those his disciples, who before were total 
strangers to the heavenly doctrine. Besides, as God the Father 
gives us his Holy Spirit for the sake of his Son, and yet has 
deposited ‘all fulness” with his Son, that he might be the 
minister and dispenser of his own goodness, — the Holy Spirit 
ts sometimes called the Spirit of the Father, and sometimes the 
Spirit of the Son. “ Ye (says Paul) are not in the flesh, but 
in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in yon. 
Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of 
his.” (kK) And thence he inspires a hope of complete renova- 
tion, for ‘‘he that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also 
quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in 
you.” (2) For there is no absurdity in ascribing to the Father 
the praise of his own gifts, of which he is the author; and 
also ascribing “the same glory to Christ, with whom the gifts 
of the Spirit are deposited, to be given to his people. 'There- 
fore he invites all who thirst to come to him and drink. (m) 
And Paul teaches us, that “‘unto every one of us is given 
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.” (m) And 
it must be remarked, that he is called the Spirit of Christ, not 
only because the eternal Word of God is united with the same 
Spirit as the Father, but also with respect. to his character 
of Mediator; for, if he had not been endued with this power, 
his advent to us would have been altogether in vain. In | 
which sense he is called ‘“‘ the second Adam, the Lord from 
heaven, a quickening Spirit; (0) where Paul compares the 
peculiar life with which the Son of God inspires his people, 
that they may be one with him, to that animal life which is 
equally common to the reprobate. So, where he wishes to the 
faithful “the grace of Christ, and the love of God,” he adds 
also ‘the communion of the Spirit,” (p) without which there 
can be no enjoyment of the paternal favour of God, or the be-. 
neficence of Christ. As he says also in another place, “ the 
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, 
which is given unto us.” (q) 

III. And here it will be proper to notice the titles by which 
the Scripture distinguishes the Spirit, where it treats of. the 
commencement, progress, and completion of our salvation. 
First, he is called the “ Spirit of adoption,” (r) because he wit- 
nesses to us the gratuitous benevolence of God, with which God 
the F'ather has embraced us in his beloved and only begotten 


(t) Joel ii. 28. (m) John vii. 37. (p) 2 Cor. xiii. 14. 
*  (k) Rom. viii. 9. (n) Ephes. iv. 7. (q) Rom. v. 5. 
(!) Rom. viii. 11. (0) 1 Cor. xv. 45. (r) Rom. viii. 15. 


CHAP. 1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 437 


Son, that he might be a father to us; and animates us to pray 
with confidence, and even dictates expressions, so that we may 
boldly ery, ‘‘ Abba, Father.” For the same reason, he is said 
to be “the earnest” and ‘‘seal’’ of our inheritance ; because, 
while we are pilgrims and strangers in the world, and as per- 
sons dead, he infuses into us such life from heaven, that we 
are certain of our salvation being secured by the Divine faith- 
fulness and care.(s) Whence he is also said to be “life,” 
because of righteousness. (¢) Since by his secret showers he 
makes us fertile in producing the fruits of righteousness, he is 


frequently called “ water; ” as in Isaiah: ‘‘ Ho, every one that 


thirsteth, come ye to the waters.”(w) Again: “I will pour 
water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry 
ground.” (w) ‘To which corresponds the invitation of Christ, 
just quoted: “If any man thirst, let him come unto me.” (zr) 
He sometimes, however, receives this appellation from his 
purifying and cleansing energy; as in Ezekiel, where the 
Lord promises to sprinkle clean water on his people, to cleanse 
them from their impurities. (y) Because he restores to life and 
vigour, and continually supports, those whom he has anointed 
with the oil of his grace, he thence obtains the name of 
“unction.” (2) Because he daily consumes the vices of our 
concupiscence, and inflames our hearts with the love of God 
and the pursuit of piety, — from these effects he is justly called 
‘fire.’ (a) Lastly, he is described to us as a “ fountain,” 
whence we receive all the emanation of heavenly riches; and 
as ‘the hand of God,’’ by which he exerts his power ; because 
by the breath of his power he inspires us with Divine life, so 
that we are not now actuated from ourselves, but directed by 
his agency and influence; so that if there be any good in us, 
it is the fruit of his grace, whereas our characters without him 
are darkness of mind and perverseness of heart. It has, indeed, 
already been clearly stated, that till our minds are fixed on the 
Spirit, Christ remains of no value to us; because we look at 
him as an object of cold speculation without us, and therefore 
at a great distance from us. But we know that he benefits 
none but those who have him for their ‘‘ head” and “elder 
brother,”’ and who have “ put him on.’ (6) This union alone 
renders his advent in the character of a Saviour available to us. 
We learn the same truth from that sacred marriage, by which 
we are made flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone, and there- 
fore one with him. (c) It is only by his Spirit that he unites 
himself with us; and by the grace and power of the same 


(s) 2 Cor. i, 22. Eph. i. 13, 14. (t) Rom. viii. 10. (u) Isaiah lv. 1. 
(w) Isaiah xliv. 3. (x) John vii. 37; iv. 14. 
(y) Ezek. xxxvi. 25. (z) 1 John ii. 20. (a) Luke ui. 16. 


(b) Eph. iv. 15. Rom. viii. 29. Gal. iii. 27. (c) Eph. v. 30. 


A88 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 11 


Spirit we are made his members; that he may BoM us unde 
himself, and we may mutually enjoy him. 

IV. But faith, being his principal work, is the object princi- 
pally referred to in the most frequent expressions of his power 
and operation; because it is the only medium by which he 
leads us into the light of the gospel; according to the declara- 
tion of John, that ‘‘ Christ gave power (or privilege) to become 
the sons of God to them that believed on his name; which 
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of 
the will of man, but of God ;”’ (d) where, opposing God to flesh 
and blood, he asserts the reception of Christ by faith, by those 
who would otherwise remain unbelievers, to be a supernatural 
gift. Similar to which is this answer of Christ: “ Flesh and 
blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is 
in heaven; ”’ (e) which I now merely mention because I have 
elsewhere treated it at large. Similar also is the assertion of 
Paul, that the Ephesians ‘were sealed with that Holy Spirit 
of promise.” (f) “For this shows, that there is an eternal 
teacher, by whose agency the promise of salvation, which 
otherwise would only strike the air, or at most our ears, pene- 
trates into our minds.‘ Similar also is his remark, that the 
Thessalonians were ‘ chused by God through sanctification of 
the Spirit, and belief of the truth; ” (g¢) by which connection, 
he briefly suggests, that faith itself proceeds only from the 
Spirit. John expresses this in plainer terms: “‘ We know that 
he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.” (h) 
Again: ‘“‘ Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, 
because he hath given us of his Spirit.” (¢) Therefore Christ 
promised to send to his disciples ‘the Spirit of truth, whom 
the world cannot receive,” (x) that they might be capable of 
attaining heavenly wisdom. He ascribes to him the peculiar 
office of suggesting to their minds all the oral instructions 
which he had given them. ‘ For in vain would the light present 
itself to the blind, unless this Spirit of understanding would 
open their mental eyes; so that he may be justly called the key 
with which the treasures of the kingdom of heaven are unlocked 
to us; and his illumination constitutes our mental eyes to be- 
hold them.*, It is therefore that Paul so highly commends the 
ministry of the Spirit; (2) because the instructions of preachers 
would produce no benefit, did not Christ himself, the interna: 
teacher, by his’ Spirit, draw to him those who were given him 
by the Father. (m) Therefore, as we have stated, that com- 
plete salvation is found in the person of Christ, so, to make us 


(d) John i. 12, 13. (g) 2 Thess. ii. 1%. ‘k) John xiv. 17. 
(e) Matt. xvi. 17. (h) 1 John iii. 24. (l) 2 Cor. ili 6. 
(f) Eph. i. 13. (zt) 1 John iv. 13. (m) John vi. 44. 


CHAP. II. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. A89 


partakers of it, he ‘“‘ baptizes us with the Holy Spirit and with 
fire,” (72) enlightening us into the faith of his Gospel, regene- 
rating us so that we become new creatures, and, purging us 
from profane impurities, consecrates us as holy temples to God. 


CHAPTER IL. 


FAITH DEFINED, AND ITS PROPERTIES DESCRIBED. 


Aut these things will be easily understood when we have 
given a clearer definition of faith, that the reader may perceive 
its nature and importance. But it will be proper to recall to 
his remembrance, what has been already stated ; that God has 
given us his law as the rule of our conduct, and that, if we are 
guilty of even the smallest breach of it, we are exposed to 
the dreadful punishment of eternal death, which he denounces. 
Again, that since it is not only difficult, but entirely above our 
strength, and beyond the utmost extent of our ability, to fulfil 
the law as he requires, —if we only view ourselves, and con- 
sider what we have demerited, we have not the least hope 
left, but, as persons rejected by God, are on the verge of eter- 
nal perdition. In the third place, it has been explained, that 
there is but one method of deliverance, by which we can be 
extricated from such a direful calamity ; that is, the appearance 
of Christ the Redeemer, by whose means our heavenly Father, 
commiserating us in his infinite goodness and mercy, has been 
pleased to relieve us, if we embrace this mercy with a sincere 
faith, and rely on it with a constant hope. But we must now 
examine the nature of this faith, by which all who are the 
adopted sons of God enter on the possession of the heavenly 
kingdom ; since it is certain, that not every opinion, nor even 
every persuasion, is equal to the accomplishment of so great a _ 
work. And we ought to be the more cautious and diligent ir : 
our meditations and inquiries on the genuine property of faith, 
in proportion to the pernicious tendency of the mistakes ot 
multitudes in the present age on this subject. Fora great part 
of the world, when they hear the word faith, conceive it to be 
nothing more than a common assent to the evangelical history. 
And even the disputes of the schools concerning faith, by 
simply styling God the object of it, (as I have elsewhere ob- 
served,) rather mislead miserable souls by a vain speculation, 


(n) Luke iii. 16. 
Ol, . 1. 62 


490 INSTITUTES OF THE © [Book II. 


than direct them to the proper mark. For, since God ‘ dwell- 
eth in the light, which no man can approach unto,” (0) there is 
a necessity for the interposition of Christ, as the medium of 
access to him. Whence he calls himself “the light of the 
world,” ( p) and in another place, ‘‘ the way, and the truth, and 
‘the life ;’’ because ‘‘no man cometh unto the Father,” who is 
the fountain of life, ‘but by him;”(q) because he alone 
knows the Father, and reveals him to believers. (7) 

For this reason Paul asserts, that he esteemed nothing 
worthy of being known but Jesus Christ ;(s) and in the twen- 
tieth chapter of the Acts declares, that he had preached faith in 
Christ ; and in another place, he introduces Christ speaking in 
the following manner: ‘‘I send thee unto the Gentiles, that 
they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among 
them which are sanctified by faith, that is in me.’ (¢) This 
apostle tells us, that the glory of God is visible to us in his 
person, or (which conveys the same idea) that “the light of 
the knowledge of the glory of God” shines “in his face.” (w) 
It is true, that faith relates to the one God; but there must 
also be added a knowledge of Jesus Christ, whom he has 
sent.(w) For God himself would be altogether conceaied 
from us, if we were not illuminated by the brightness of Christ. 
For this purpose the Father has deposited all his treasures 
with his only begotten Son, that he might reveal himself ina 
him; and that, by such a communication of blessings, he 
might express a true image of his glory. For as it has been 
observed, that we require to be drawn by the Spirit, that we 
may be excited to seek Christ, so we should also be apprized, 
that the invisible Father is to be sought only in this image. 
On which subject, Augustine, treating of the object of faith, 
beautifully remarks, “that we ought to know whither we should 
go, and in what way;” and immediately after he concludes, 
‘“‘that he who unites Deity and humanity in one person, is the 
way most secure from all errors; for that it is God towards 
whom we tend, and man by whom we go; but that both to- 
gether can be found only in Christ.”” Nor does Paul, when he 
speaks of faith in God, intend to subvert what he so frequently 
inculcates concerning faith, whose stability is wholly in Christ. 
And Peter most suitably connects them together, when he says, 
that ‘by him we believe in God.” (z) 

II. This evil, then, as well as innumerable others, must be 
imputed to the schoolmen, who have, as it were, concealed 
Christ, by drawing a veil over him; whereas, unless our 
views be immediately and steadily directed to him, we shall 


(0) 1 Tim. vi. 16. (r) Luke x. 22. (uw) 2 Cor. iv. 6. 
(p) John viii. 12. * (s) 1 Cor. ii. 2. (w) John xvii. 3. 
(q) John xiv. 6.. (t) Acts xxvi. 17, 18. (z) 1 Pet. i. 21. 


CHAP. I1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. A491 


always be wandering through labyrinths without end. They 
not only, by their obscure definition, diminish, and almost an- 
nihilate, all the importance of faith, but have fabricated the no- 
tion of implicit faith, a term with which they have honoured the 
grossest ignorance, and most perniciously deluded the miserable 
multitude. Indeed, to express the fact more truly and plainly, 
this notion has not only buried the true faith in oblivion, but has 
entirely destroyed it. Is this faith —to understand nothing, 
but obediently to submit our understanding to the Church? 
Faith consists not in ignorance, but in knowledge; and that 
not only of God, but also of the Divine will. For we do not 
obtain salvation by our promptitude to embrace as truth what- 
ever the Church may have prescribed, or by our transferring to 
her the province of inquiry and of knowledge. But when we 
know God to be a propitious Father to us, through the recon- 
ciliation effected by Christ, and that Christ is given to us for 
righteousness, sanctification, and life, — by this knowledge, I 
say, not by renouncing our understanding, we obtain an en- 
trance into the kingdom of heaven. For, when the apostle 
says, that ‘with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, 
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation,” (y) 
he indicates, that it is not sufficient for a man implicitly to 
credi‘ what he neither understands, nor even examines; but 
he requires an explicit knowledge of the Divine goodness, in 
which our righteousness consists. 

II. I do not deny (such is the ignorance with which we 
are enveloped) that many things are very obscure to us at 
present, and will continue to be so, till we shall have cast off 
the burden of the flesh, and arrived nearer to the presence of 
God. On such subjects, nothing would be more proper than a 
suspension of judgment, and a firm resolution to maintain unity 
with the Church. But that ignorance combined with humility 
should, under this pretext, be dignified with the appellation of — 
Faith, is extremely absurd. For faith consists in a knowledge: 
of God and of Christ, (2) not in reverence for the Church. 
And we see what a labyrinth they have fabricated by this 
notion of theirs, so that the ignorant and inexperienced, with- 
out any discrimination, eagerly embrace as oracular every 
thing obtruded upon them under the name of the Church; 
sometimes even the most monstrous errors. This inconsiderate 
credulity, though it be the certain precipice of ruin, is, never- 
theless, excused by them on the plea that it credits nothing 
definitively, but with this condition annexed, If such be the 
faith of the Church. ‘Thus they pretend that truth is held in 
error, light in darkness, and true knowledge in ignorance. 


(y) Rom. x. 10 (z) John xvii. 3. 


492, INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 111. 


But, not to occupy any more time in refuting them, we only 
admonish the reader to compare their doctrine with ours; for 
the perspicuity of the truth will of itself furnish a sufficient 
refutation. For the question with them is not, whether faith 
be yet involved in many relics of ignorance, but they po- 
sitively assert, that persons are possessed of true faith, who are 
charmed with their ignorance, and even indulge it, providea 
they assent to the authority and. judgment of the Church con- 
cerning things unknown; asif the Scripture did not univer- 
sally inculcate that knowledge is united with faith. 

IV. We grant, that during our pilgrimage in the world, our 
faith is implicit, not only because many things are yet hidden 
from our view, but because our knowledge of every thing is 
very imperfect, in consequence of the clouds of error by which 
we are surrounded. For the greatest wisdom of those who are 
most perfect, 1s to improve, and to press forward with patient 
docility. Therefore Paul exhorts the faithful, if they differ 
from each other on any subject, to wait for further revela- 
tion. (a) And experience teaches us, that till we are divested 
of the flesh, our knowledge falls far short of what might be 
wished ; in reading also, many obscure passages daily occur, 
which convince us of oir ignorance. With this barrier God 
restrains us within the bounds of modesty, assigning to every 
one a measure of faith, that even the most learned teacher may 
be ready to learn. We may observe eminent examples of this 
implicit faith in the disciples of Christ, before they were fully 
enlightened. We see with what difficulty they imbibed the 
first rudiments; how they hesitated even at the most minute 
particulars; what inconsiderable advances they made even 
while hanging on the lips of their Master; and when they ran 
to the grave at the intelligence of the women, his resurrection 
was like a dream to them. ‘The testimony already borne by 
Christ to their possession of faith, forbids us to say that they 
were entirely destitute of it; indeed, if they had not been per- 
suaded that Christ would rise from the dead, they would have 
felt no further concern about him. The women were not in- 
duced by superstition to embalm with spices the body of a 
deceased man, of whose life there was no hope; but though 
they credited his declarations, whose veracity they well knew, 
yet the ignorance, which still occupied their minds, involved 
their faith in darkness, so that they were almost lost in astonish- 
ment. Whence also they are said at length to have believed, 
when they saw the words of Christ verified by facts; not that 
their faith then commenced, but the seed of faith, which had 
been latent, and as it were dead in their hearts, then shot forth 


(a) Phil. iii. 15. 


CHAP. I1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 4.93 


with additional vigour. They had therefore a true but an 
implicit faith, because they received Christ with reverence as 
‘their only teacher: being taught by him, they were persuaded 
that he was the author of their salvation ; and they believed 
that he came from heaven, that through the grace of the Fa- 
ther he might assemble all his disciples there. But we need 
not seek a more familiar proof of this point, than that some 
portion of unbelief is always mixed with faith in every 
Christian. 

V. We may also style that an implicit faith, which in strict 
propriety is nothing but a preparation for faith. The evange- 
lists relate that many believed, who, only being filled with 
admiration at the miracles of Christ, proceeded no further than 
a persuasion that he was the promised Messiah, although they 
had little or no knowledge of evangelical doctrine. Such reve- 
rence, which induced them cheerfully to submit themselves to 
Christ, is dignified with the title of faith, of which, however, 
it was merely the commencement. ‘Thus the nobleman, or 
courtier, who believed the promise of Christ concerning the 
healing of his son, when he returned to his house, (6) accord- 
ing to the testimony of the evangelist, believed again; that is, 
first he esteemed as'an oracle what he had heard from the lips 
of Christ ; but afterwards he devoted himself to his authority 
to receive his doctrine. It must be understood, however, that 
he was docile and ready to learn; that the word believe, in the 
first place, denotes a particular faith; but in the second place, 
it numbers him among the disciples who had given their 
names to Christ. John gives us a similar example in the Sa- 
maritans, who believed the report of the woman, so as to run 
with eagerness to Christ ; but who, after having heard him, said 
to the woman, ‘“‘ Now we believe, not because of thy saying ; for 
we have heard him ourselves, and know, that this is indeed the 
Christ, the Saviour of the world.” (c) Hence it appears, that 
persons not yet initiated into the first elements, but only in- 
clined to obedience, are called believers; not, indeed, with 
strict propriety, but because God, in his goodness, distinguishes 
that pious disposition with such a great honour. But this 
docility, connected with a desire of improvement, is very re- 
mote from that gross ignorance which stupefies those who are 
content with such an implicit faith as the Papists have invented. 
For if Paul severely condemns those who are “ ever learning, 
yet never come to the knowledge of the truth,” (d) how 
much greater ignominy do they deserve who make it their 
etl ye know nothing! 

This, then, is the true knowledge of Christ —to receive 


(6) John iv. 50—53. (c) John iv. 42. (d) 2 Tim. iii. 7. 


4,94, INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 111. 


him as he is offered by the Father, that is, invested with his 
gospel ; for, as he 1s appointed to be the object of our faith, so 
we cannot advance in the right way to him, without the gui- 
dance of the gospel. ‘The gospel certainly opens to us those 
treasures of grace, without which Christ would profit us little’, 
Thus Paul connects faith as an inseparable concomitant with 
doctrine, where he says, ‘‘ Ye have not so learned Christ ; if so 
be ye have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus.” (e) Yet 
Ido not so far restrict faith to the gospel, but that I admit 
Moses and the prophets to have delivered what was sufficient 
for its establishment; but because the gospel exhibits a fuller 
manifestation of Christ, it is justly styled by Paul, “‘the words 
of faith and of good doctrine.” (f) For the same reason, in 
another place, he represents the law as abolished by the com- 
ing of faith ;(g) comprehending under this term the new kind 
of teaching, by which Christ, since his appearance as our Mas- 
ter, has given a brighter display of the mercy of the Father, 
and a more explicit testimony concerning our salvation. The 
more easy and convenient method for us, will be, to descend 
regularly from the genus to the species. * In the first place, we 
must be apprized, that faith has a perpetual relation to the 
word, and can no more be separated from it, than the rays from 
the sun, whence they proceed. Therefore God proclaims by 
Isaiah, ‘‘ Hear, and your souls shall live.’(h) And that the 
word is the fountain of faith, is evident from this language of 
John: ‘These are written, that ye might believe.” (7) The 
Psalmist also, intending to exhort the people to faith, says, 
“To-day, if ye will hear his voice ;” (xk) and to hear, gene- 
rally means to believe.\, Lastly, it is not without reason that in 
Isaiah, God distinguishes the children of the Church from 
strangers, by this character, that they shall all be his disciples, 
and be taught by him; (2) for, if this were a benefit commou 
to all, why should he address himself to a few? Correspond- 
ent with this is the general use of the words “ believers,” 
and ‘‘disciples,” as synonymous, by the evangelists, on all 
occasions, and by Luke in particular, very frequently in the 
Acts of the Apostles; in the ninth chapter of which, he ex- 
tends the latter epithet even to a woman. Wherefore, if faith 
decline in the smallest degree from this object, towards which 
it ought to be directed, it no longer retains its own nature, 
but becomes an uncertain credulity, and an erroneous excursion 
of the mind. The same Divine word is the foundation by 
which faith is sustained and supported, from which it cannot 
be moved without an immediate downfall. Take away the 
word, then, and there will be no faith left. ‘We are not here 


(e) Eph. iv. 20, 21. (f) 1 Tim. iv. 6. (g) Gal. iti, 23—25. (h) Isaiah lv. 3 
(2) John RxiSh (kA) Psalm xev. 7. (1) Isaiah liv. 13. 


CHAP. 1] . CHRISTIAN RELIGION. A495 


disputing whether the ministry of men be necessary to disse- 
minate the word of God, by which faith is produced, which we 
shall discuss in another place; but we assert, that the word 
itself, however it may be conveyed to us, is like a mirror, in 
which faith may behold God. Whether, therefore, God in this 
instance use the agency of men, or whether he operate solely 
by his own power, he always discovers himself by his word to 
those whom he designs to draw to himselfx(m) Whence 
Paul defines faith as an obedience rendered to the gospel, and 
praises the service of faith. (7) }For the apprehension of faith 
is not confined to our knowing that there is a God, but chiefly 
consists in our understanding what is his disposition towards 
us. For it is not of so much importance to us to know what 
he is in himself, as what he is willing to be tous. We find, 
therefore, that faith is a knowledge of the will of God respect- 
ing us, received from his word. _ And the foundation of this is 
a previous persuasion of the Divine veracity; any doubt of 
which being entertained in the mind, the authority of the word 
will be dubious and weak, or rather it will be of no authority 
at all. Nor is it sufficient to believe that the veracity of God 
is incapable of deception or falsehood, unless you also admit, as 
beyond all doubt, that whatever proceeds from him is sacred 
and inviolable truth. \, 

VII. But as the human heart is not excited to faith by every 
word of God, we must further inquire what part of the word 
it is, with which faith is particularly concerned. God de- 
clared to Adam, ‘‘’Thou shalt surely die;” (0) and to Cain, 
“'The voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the 
ground ;”’(p) but these declarations are so far from being 
adapted to the establishment of faith, that of themselves they 
can only shake it. We do not deny that it is the office of 
faith to subscribe to the truth of God, whatever be the time, 
the nature, or the manner of his communications; but our pre- 
sent inquiry is only, what faith finds in the Divine word, upon 
which to rest its dependence and confidence. When our con- 
science beholds nothing but indignation and vengeance, how 
shall it not tremble with fear? And if God be the object of 
its terror, how should it not fly from him? But faith ought to 
seek God, not to fly from him. It appears, then, that we have 
not yet a complete definition of faith; since a.knowledge of the 
Divine will indefinitely, ought not to be accounted faith. But 
suppose, instead of will, — the declaration of which is often pro- 
ductive of fear and sorrow,—we substitute benevoleuce or 
mercy. This will certainly bring us nearer to the nature of 


(m) Rom. i. 5. (0) Ger ii. 17. 
(n) Phil. ii. 17. (m) Gen. rv. 10. 


496 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 11 


faith. For we are allured to seek God, after we have learned 
that salvation is laid up for us with him; which is confirmed 
to us by his declaring it to be the object of his care and af- 
fection. Therefore we need a promise of grace, to assure us 
that he is our propitious F'ather; since we cannot approach to 
him without it, and it is upon that alone that the human heart 
can securely depend. For this reason, in the Psalms, merey 
and truth are generally united, as being closely connected; be- 
cause it would be of no avail for us to know the veracity of 
God, if he did not allure us to himself by his mercy; nor 
should we embrace his mercy, if he did not offer it with his 
own mouth. “I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salva- 
tion: I have not concealed thy loving-kindness and thy truth. 
Let thy loving-kindness and thy truth continually preserve - 
me.” (g) Agam: ‘Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; 
and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.” (7) Agam: 
‘“‘ All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth unto such as 
keep his covenant.” (s) Again: “ His merciful kindness is 
great towards us; and the truth of the Lord endureth for 
ever.” (¢) Again: “I will praise thy name for thy loving- 
kindness, and for thy truth.” («) I forbear to quote what we 
read in the prophets to the same purport, that God is merciful 
and faithful in his promises. For it will be temerity to con- 
clude that God is propitious to us, unless he testify concerning 
himself, and anticrpate us by his invitation, that his will re- 
specting us may be neither ambiguous nor obscure. But we 
have already seen, that Christ is the only pledge of his love, 
without whom the tokens of his hatred and wrath are mani- 
fest both above and below. Now, since the knowledge of the 
Divine goodness wil] not be attended with much advantage, 
unless it lead us to rely upon it, we must exclude that ap- 
prehension of it which is mixed with doubts, which is not 
uniform and steady, but wavermg and undecided. ‘Now, the 
human mind, blinded and darkened as it is, is very far from 
neing able to penetrate and attain to a knowledge of the Divine 
will ; and the heart also, fluctuating in perpetual hesitation, is 
far from continuing unshaken in that persuasion. Therefore 
our mind must be illuminated, and our heart established by 
some exterior power, that the word of God may obtain full 
eredit with us. ‘Now, we shall have a complete definition of 
faith, if we say, that it is a steady and certain knowledge of 
the Divine benevolence towards us, which, being founded on 
the truth of the gratuitous promise in Christ, is both reveale 
to our minds, and confirmed to our hearts, by the Holy spit 


(q) Psalm xl. 10, 11. (r) Psalm xxxvi. 5. (s) Psalm xxv. 10. 
(t) Psalm exvii. 2. (wu) Psalm exxxviii. 2. 


CHAP. I1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 497 


VIII. But before 1 proceed any further, it will be necessary 
to make some preliminary observations, for the solution of diffi- 
culties, which otherwise might prove) obstacles in the way of 
the reader. 

And first, we must refute the nugatory distinction, which 
prevails in the schools, of formal and informal faith. For they 
imagine, that such as are not impressed with any fear of God, 
or with any sense of piety, believe all that 1s necessary to be 
known in order to salvation; as though the Holy Spirit, in il- 
luminating our hearts to faith, were not a witness to us of our 
adoption. Yet, in opposition to the whole tenor of Scripture, 
they presumptuously dignify such a persuasion, destitute of the 
fear of God, with the name of faith. We need not contend 
with this definition any further than by simply describing the 
nature of faith, as it is represented in the Divine word. And 
this will clearly evince the ignorance and insipidity of their 
clamour concerning it. I have treated it in part already, and 
shall subjoin what remains in its proper place. At present, I 
affirm, that a greater absurdity than this figment of theirs, can- 
not possibly be imagined. ‘They maintain faith to be a mere 
assent, with which every despiser of God may receive as true 
whatever is contained in the Scripture. But first it should be 
examined, whether every man acquires faith for himself by his 
own power, or whether it is by faith that the Holy Spirit 
becomes the witness of adoption. ‘They betray puerile folly, 
therefore, in inquiring whether faith, which is formed by the 
- superaddition of a quality, be the same, or whether it be a new 
and different faith. It clearly appears, that while they have 
been trifling in this manner, they never thought of the peculiar 
sift of the Spirit; for the commencement of faith contains in 
it the reconciliation by which man draws near to God. But, 
if they wouid duly consider that declaration of Paul, ‘‘ With 
the heart man believeth unto righteousness,” (w) they would 
cease their trifling about this superadded quality. If we had 
only this one reason, it ought to be sufficient to terminate the 
controversy —that the assent which we give to the Divine 
word, as I have partly suggested before, and shall again more 
largely repeat, is from the heart rather than the head, and from 
the affections rather than the understanding. For which reason 
it is called “‘the obedience of faith,” (x) to which the Lord 
prefers no other obedience ; because nothing is more precious 
to him than his own truth ; which, according to the testimony 
of John the Baptist, (v) believers, as it were, subscribe and 
seal. As this is by no means a dubious point, we conclude at 
once, that it is an absurdity to say, that faith is formed by the 


(w) Rom. x. 10. (x) Rom. i. 5. (y) John iii. 33. 
VOL. I. 3 


A98 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox I1- 


addition of a pious affection to an assent of the mind ; whereas, 
even this assent consists in a pious affection, and is so described 
in the Scriptures. But another argument offers itself, which is 
still plainer. Since faith accepts Christ, as he is offered to us 
by the Father; and he is offered, not only for righteousness, 
remission of sins, and peace, but also for sanctification and as a 
fountain of living water; it is certain, that no man can ever 
know him aright, unless he at the same time receive the sane- 
tification of the Spirit. Or, if any one would wish it to be 
more clearly expressed, Faith consists in a knowledge of Christ. 
Christ cannot be known without the sanctification of his 
Spirit. Consequently, faith is absolutely inseparable from a 
pious affection. 

IX. This passage of Paul, ‘‘ Though I have all faith, so 
that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am 
nothing,’ (z) is generally adduced by them to support the no- 
tion of an informal faith unaccompanied with charity ; but~ 
they overlook the sense in which the apostle uses the word 
‘faith ” in this place. For having, in the preceding chapter, 
treated of the various gifts of the Spirit, among which he has 
enumerated “divers kinds of tongues, the working of miracles 
and prophecy,” (a) and having exhorted the Corinthians to — 
““covet earnestly the best gifts,” from which the greatest bene- 
fit and advantage would accrue to the whole body of the 
Church, he adds, ‘“‘ yet show I unto you a more excellent 
way ;” implying, that all such gifts, whatever be their intrinsi¢ 
excellence, are yet to be deemed worthless, unless they be 
subservient to charity ; for that, being given for the edification 
of the Church, if not employed for that purpose, they lose their 
beauty and value. ‘To prove this, he particularly specifies them, 
repeating the same gifts, which he had before enumerated, but 
under other names. He uses the word ‘‘ faith” to denote 
what he had before called powers, (duvazes, potestates, virtutes, ) 
that is, a power of working miracles. This, then, whether it 
be called power or faith, being a particular gift of God, which 
any impious man may both possess and abuse, as the gift of 
tongues, or prophecy, or other gifts, we need not wonder if it 
be separated from charity. But the mistake of such persons 
arises wholly from this —that though the word “‘ faith ” is used 
in many senses, not observing this diversity of signification, 
they argue as if it had always the same meaning. The pas- 
sage which they adduce from James in support of the same 
error, shall be discussed in another place. Now, although, for 
the sake of instruction, when we design to show the nature of 
that knowledge of God, which is possessed by the impious, we 


(z) 1 Cor. xiii. 2. (a) 1 Cor. xii. 10—31. 


CHAP. I1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. A499 


allow that there are various kinds of faith, yet we acknow- 
ledge and preach only one faith in the pious, according to the 
doctrine of the Scripture. Many men certainly believe that 
there is a God; they admit the evangelical history and the 
other parts of Scripture to be true ; just as we form an opinion 
of transactions which are narrated as having occurred in former 
times, or of which we have ourselves been spectators. There 
are some who go further; esteeming the word of God as an 
undoubted revelation from heaven, not wholly disregarding its 
precepts, and being in some measure affected both by its de- 
nunciations and by its promises. ‘To such persons, indeed, 
faith is attributed ; but by a catachresis, a tropical or improper 
form of expression ; because they do not with open impiety re- 
sist, or reject, or contemn the word of God, but rather exhibit 
some appearance of obedience to it. 

X. But this shadow or image of faith, as it is of no impor- 
tance, so is unworthy of the name of faith; its great distance 
from the substantial truth of which, though we shall show 
more at large hereafter, there can be no objection to its being 
briefly pointed out here. Simon Magus (b) is said to have be- 
lieved, who, nevertheless, just after, betrays his unbelief. When 
faith is attributed to him, we do not apprehend, with some, 
that he merely pretended to it with his lips, while he had none 
m his heart; but we rather think, that being overcome with 
the majesty of the gospel, he did exercise a kind of faith, and 
perceived Christ to be the author of life and salvation, so as 
freely to profess himself one of his followers. ‘Thus, in the 
Gospel of Luke, those persons are said to believe for a time, in 
whom the seed of the word is prematurely choked before it 
fructifies, and those in whom it takes no root, but soon dries 
up and perishes. We doubt not but such persons, being at- 
tracted with some taste of the word, receive it with avidity, 
and begin to perceive something of its Divine power; so that 
by the fallacious counterfeit of faith, they impose not only en 
the eyes of men, but even on their own minds. For they pe- 
suade themselves, that the reverence which they show for the 
word of God, is real piety ; supposing that there is no impiety 
but a manifest and acknowledged abuse or contempt of it. 
But, whatever be the nature of that assent, it penetrates not to 
the heart, so as to fix its residence there ; and though it some- 
times appears to have shot forth roots, yet there is no life in 
them. ‘The heart of man has so many recesses of vanity, and 
so many retreats of falsehood, and is so enveloped with fraudu- 
ent hypocrisy, that it frequently deceives even himself. But 
let them, who glory in such phantoms of faith, know, that in 


(b) Acts viii. 13, 18, 19. 


500 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book .n 


this respect they are not at all superior to devils. Persons of 
the former description, who hear and understand without any 
emotion those things, the knowledge of which makes devils 
‘tremble, are certainly far inferior to the fallen spirits; and the 
others are equal to them in this respect —that the sentiments 
with which they are impressed, finally terminate in terror and 
consternation. (c) 

XI. I know that it appears harsh to some, when faith is at- 
tributed to the reprobate ; since Paul affirms it to be the fruit 
of election. But this difficulty is easily solved; for, though 
none are illuminated to faith, or truly feel the efficacy of the 
gospel, but such as are preordained to salvation, yet expe- 
rience shows, that the reprobate are sometimes affected with 
emotions very similar to those of the elect, so that, in their own 
Opinion, they in no respect differ from the elect. Wherefore, 
it is not at all absurd, that a taste of heavenly gifts is ascribed 
to them by the apostle, and a temporary faith by Christ : (d) 
not that they truly perceive the energy of spiritual grace and 
clear light of faith, but because the Lord, to render their guilt 
more manifest and inexcusable, insinuates himself into their 
minds, as far as his goodness can be enjoyed without the Spirit 
of adoption. If any one object, that there remains, then, no 
further evidence by which the faithful can certainly judge of 
their adoption, I reply, that although there is a great simili- 
tude and affinity between the elect of God and those who are 
endued with a frail and transitory faith, yet the elect possess 
that confidence, which Paul celebrates, so as boldly to “ery, 
Abba, Father.” (e) Therefore, as God regenerates for ever the 
elect alone with incorruptible seed, so that the seed of life 
planted in their hearts never perishes, so he firmly seals with- 
in them the grace of his adoption, that it may be confirmed and 
ratified to their minds. But this by no means prevents that 
inferior operation of the Spirit from exerting itself even in the 
reprobate. In the mean time the faithful are taught to examine 
themselves with solicitude and humility, lest carnal security 
insinuate itself, instead of the assurance of faith. Besides, the 
reprobate have only a confused perception of grace, so that 
they embrace the shadow rather than the substance ; because 
the Spirit properly seals remission of sins in the elect alone, 
and they apply it by a special faith to their own benefit. Yet 
the reprobate are justly said to believe that God is propitious 
to them, because they receive the gift of reconciliation, though 
in a confused and too indistinct manner: not that they are par- 
takers of the same faith or regeneration with the sons of God, 
but because they appear, under the disguise of hypocrisy, tc 


(c) James ii. 19. (d) Heb. vi. 4. (e) Gal iv. 6. 


- 


CHAP. I1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 501 


have the principle of faith in common with them. Nor do I] 
deny, that God so far enlightens their minds, that they discover 
his grace; but he so distinguishes that perception from the 
peculiar testimony, which he gives to his elect, that they never 
attain any solid effect and enjoyment. For he does not, there- 
fore, show himself propitious to them, by truly delivering them 
from death, and receiving them under his protection; but he 
only manifests to them present mercy. But he vouchsafes to 
the elect alone, the living root of faith, that they may persevere 
even to the end. ‘Thus we have refuted the objection, that if 
God truly discovers his grace, it remains for ever; because 
nothing prevents God from illuminating some with a present 
perception of his grace, which afterwards. vanishes away. 

XII. Moreover, though faith is a knowledge of the benevo- 
lence of God towards us, and a certain persuasion of his ve- 
racity, yet it is not to be wondered at, that the subjects of 
these temporary impressions lose the sense of Divine love, 
which, notwithstanding its affinity to faith, is yet widely dif- 
ferent from it. The will of God, I confess, is immutable, and 
his truth always consistent with itself. But I deny that the 
reprobate ever go so far as to penetrate to that secret revelation, 
which the Scripture confines to the elect. I deny, therefore, 
that they either apprehend the will of God, as it is immutable, 
or embrace his truth with constancy; because they rest ina 
fugitive sentiment. Thus a tree, not planted deeply enough to 
shoot forth living roots, in process of time withers ; though for 
some years it niay produce not only leaves and blossoms, but 
even fruits. Finally,as the defection of the first man was suf- 
ficient to obliterate the Divine image from his mind and soul, 
so we need not wonder if God enlightens the reprobate with 
some beams of his grace, which he afterwards suffers to be ex- 
tinguished. Nor does any thing prevent him from slightly 
tincturing some with the knowledge of his gospel, and 
thoroughly imbuing others with it. It must, nevertheless, be 
remembered, that how diminutive and weak soever faith may 
be in the elect, yet, as the Spirit of God is a certain pledge 
and seal to them of their adoption, his impression can never be 
erased from their hearts; but that the reprobate have only a 
few scattered rays of light, which are afterwards lost; yet 
that the Spirit is not chargeable with deception, because he in- 
fuses no life into the seed which he drops in their hearts, that 
it may remain for ever incorruptible, as in the elect. I go 
still further; for since it is evident from the tenor of the 
Scripture, and from daily experience, that the reprobate are 
sometimes affected with a sense of Divine grace, some desire 
of mutual love must necessarily be excited in their hearts. . 
Thus Saul had for a time a pious disposition to love God, from 


502 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 111. 


whom experiencing paternal kindness, he was allured by the 
charms of his goodness. But as the persuasion of the paternal 
love of God is not radically fixed in the reprobate, so they love 
him not reciprocally with the sincere affection of children, but 
are influenced by a mercenary disposition ; for the spirit of love 
was given to Christ alone, that he might instil it into his mem- 
bers. And this observation of Paul certainly extends to none 
but the elect: ‘‘ The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by 
the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us;’’(f) the same love, 
which generates that confidence of invocation which I have 
before mentioned. Thus, on the contrary, we see that God is 
wonderfully angry with his children, whom he ceases not to 
love: not that he really hates them, but because he designs to 
terrify them with a sense of his wrath, to humble their carnal 
pride, to shake off their indolence, and to excite them to re- 
pentance. ‘Therefore they apprehend him to be both angry with 
them, or at least with their sins, and propitious to them at the 
same time; for they sincerely deprecate his wrath, and yet 
resort to him for succour with tranquillity and. confidence. 
Hence it appears, that faith is not hypocritically counterfeited 
by some, who nevertheless are destitute of true faith ; but, while 
they are hurried away with a sudden impetuosity of zeal, they 
. deceive themselves by a false opinion. Nor is it to be doubted, 
that indolence preoccupies them, and prevents them from 
properly examining their hearts as they ought to do. It is 
probable that those persons were of this description, to whom, 
according to John, “Jesus did not commit himself,’ notwith- 
standing that they believed in him, ‘because he knew all 
men: he knew what was in man.’ (g) If multitudes did not 
depart from the common faith, (I style it common, because 
there is a great similitude and affinity between temporary faith 
and that which is living and perpetual,) Christ would not 
have said to his disciples, “If ye continue in my word, then 
are ye my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and 
the truth shall make you free.” (h) For he addresses those 
who have embraced his doctrine, and exhorts them to an in- 
crease of faith, that the light which they have received may 
not be extinguished by their own supineness. Therefore 


Paul claims faith as peculiar to the elect, (7) indicating that” 


many decay, because they have had no living root. Thus also 
Christ says in Matthew, “ Every plant, which my heavenly 
Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.” (kK) There is a 
grosser deception in others, who are not ashamed to attempt to 
deceive both God and men. James inveighs against this class 


(f) Rom. v. 5. g) John ii. 24, 25. h) John viii. 31, 32. 
2) ) 
(2) Titus i. 1. (k). Matt. xv. 13. 


CHAP. u.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 503 


of men, who impiously profane faith by hypocritical preten- 
sions to it.(7) Nor would Paul require from the children of 
God, a “faith unfeigned,” (mm) but because multitudes pre- 
sumptuously arrogate to themselves what they possess not, and 
with their vain pretenceg deceive others, and sometimes even 
themselves. Therefore he compares a good conscience to a 
vessel in which faith is kept; because many, “ having put away 
a good conscience, concerning faith have made shipwreck.” (7) 

XIII. We must also remember the ambiguous signification 
of the word faith ; for frequently faith signifies the sound doc- 
trine of piety, as in the place which we have just cited, and in 
the same Epistle, where Paul says, that deacons must hold “ the 
mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.’ (9) Also where he 
predicts the apostasy of some “from the faith.” (py) But, on 
the contrary, he says, that ‘Timothy ‘had been ‘“ nourished up 
in the words of faith.” (q) Again, where he says, ‘avoiding 
profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science, falsely 
so called ; which some professing, have erred concerning the 
faith ;””? (r) whom in another place he styles “‘reprobates con- 
cerning the faith.” (s) Thus, also, when he directs Titus to 
“rebuke them, that they may be sound in the faith,” (¢) by 
soundness, he means nothing more than that purity of doctrine, 
which is so lable to be corrupted and to degenerate through 
the instability of men. Since ‘‘all the treasures of wisdom 
and knowledge are hidden in Christ,” (w) whom faith pos- 
sesses, faith is justly extended to the whole, summary of hea- 
venly doctrines, with which it is inseparably connected. On the 
contrary, it is sometimes restricted to a particular object ; as 
when Matthew says, that ‘‘ Jesus saw their faith,” (w) who let 
down the paralytic man through the roof; and when Christ ex- 
claimed respecting the centurion, ‘‘I have not found so great 
faith, no, not in Israel.” (x) But it is probable, that the centu- 
rion was wholly intent on the recovery of his son, a con- 
cern for whom wholly occupied his mind; yet, because he was 
contented with the mere answer of Christ, without being im- 
portunate for his corporeal presence, it is on account of this cir- 
cumstance that his faith is so greatly extolled. And we have 
lately shown, that Paul uses faith for the gift of miracles ; 
which is possessed by those who are neither regenerated by the 
Spirit of God, nor serious worshippers of him. In another 
place, also, he uses it to denote the instruction by which we are 
edified in the faith; for, when he suggests that faith will be 
abolished, it must undoubtedly be referred to the ministry of 
the Church, which is, at present, useful to our infirmity. In 


(lt) James ui. 14. (p) 1 Tim. iv. 1. (t) Titus 1. 13. 
m) 1 Tim. i. 5. (q) 1 Tim. iv. 6. (u) Col. ii. 3. 
tn un. 1, 19: (r) 1 Tim. vi. 20, 21. (2) Matt.ix 2. Mark ii. 5 


(0) 1 Tim. ii. 9 (s) 2 Tim. ii. 8. (z) Matt. viii. 10. 


504 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book I. 


these forms of expression, however, there is an evident analogy. 
But when the word “ faith” is in an improper sense transferred 
to a hypocritical profession, or to that which falsely assumes 
the name, it should not be accounted a harsher catachresis, 
than when the fear of God is used far a corrupt and perverse 
worship; as when it is frequently said in the sacred history, 
that the foreign nations, which had been transplanted to Sa- 
maria and its vicinity, feared the fictitious deities and the 
God of Israel ; which is like confounding together heaven and 
earth. But our present inquiry is, what is that faith by which 
the children of God are distinguished from unbelievers, by 
which we invoke God as our Father, by which we pass from 
death to life, and by which Christ, our eternal hfe and salva- 
tion, dwells in us?) The force and nature of it, I conceive, I 
have concisely and clearly explained. 

XIV. Now, let us again examine all the parts of that defini- 
tion; a careful consideration of which, 1 think, will leave 
nothing doubtful remaining. When'we call it knowledge, we 
intend not such a comprehension as men commonly have of 
those things which fall under the notice of their senses. For 
it is so superior, that the human mind must exceed and rise above 
itself, in order to attain to it. Nor does the mind which attains 
it comprehend what it perceives, but being persuaded of that 
which it cannot comprehend, it understands more by the cer- 
tainty of this persuasion, than it would comprehend of any hu- 
man object by the exercise of its natural capacity. Wherefore 
Paul beautifully expresses it in these terms: ‘‘ to comprehend 
what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height ; and to 
know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.” (y) For 
he meant to suggest, that what our mind apprelends by faith is 
absolutely infinite, and that this kind of knowledge far exeeeds 
all understanding. Yet, because God has revealed to his saints 
the secret of his will, ‘“ which had been hidden from ages and 
from generations,’ (z) therefore faith is in Scripture justly 
styled “an acknowledgment;” (a) and by John, “know- 
Jedge,’’ when he asserts, that believers know that they are the 
sons of God. (6) And they have indeed a certain knowledge 
of it; but are rather confirmed by a persuasion of the veracity 
of God, than taught by any demonstration of reason. * The 
language of Paul also indicates this: “ whilst we are at home 
in the body, we are absent from the Lord ; for we walk by faith, 
not by sight.” By this he shows that the things which we 
understand through faith, are at a distance from us, and beyond 
dur sight. Whence we conclude, that the knowledge of faith 
_?onsists more in certainty than in comprehension. > 


(y) Eph. iii. 18. Wi (a) Col. ii. 2. 
(z) Col. 1. 26: : (6) 1 John ii. 2. 


CHAP. 11.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 505 


XV. ‘To express the solid constancy of the persuasion, we 
further say, that it is.a certain and steady knowledge. For, as 
faith is not content with a dubious and versatile opinion, so 
neither with an obscure and perplexed conception; but re- 
quires a full and fixed certainty, such as is commonly obtained 
respecting things that have been tried and proved. For un- 
belief is so deeply rooted in our hearts, and such is our pro- 
pensity to it, that though all men confess with the tongue, 
that God is faithful, no man can persuade himself of the truth 
of it, without the most arduous exertions. Especially when 
the time of trial comes, the general indecision discloses the 
fault which was previously concealed. Nor is it without 
reason that the Holy Spirit asserts the authority of the Divine 
word in terms of such high commendation, but with a design 
to remedy the disease which I have mentioned, that the pro- 
mises of God may obtain full credit with us. ‘ The words of 
the Lord (says David) are pure words’; as silver tried in a furnace 
of earth purified seven times.” (c) Again: “The word of the 
Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him.” (d) 
And Solomon confirms the same, nearly in the same words: 
“Every word of God is pure.” (e) But, as the hundred and 
nineteenth Psalm is almost entirely devoted to this subject, it 
were needless to recite any more testimonies. ‘Whenever God 

thus recommends his word to us, he, without doubt, obliquely 
' reprehends our unbelief; for the design of those recommenda- 
tions is no other than to eradicate perverse doubts from our 
hearts.. There are also many, who have such conceptions of 
the Divine mercy, as to receive but very little consolation from 
it. For they are at the same time distressed with an unhappy 
anxiety, doubting whether he will be merciful to them; be- 
cause they confine within too narrow. limits that clemency, of 
which they suppose themselves to be fully persuaded. For 
they reflect with themselves thus: that his mercy is large and 
copious, bestowed upon many, and ready for the acceptance of 
all; but that it is uncertain whether it will reach them also, or, 
rather, whether they shall reach it. This thought, since it 
stops in the midst of its course, is incomplete. Therefore it 
does not so much confirm the mind with secure tranquillity, as 
disturb it with restless hesitation. But very different is the 
meaning of ‘full assurance,” (*Anpogopias,) which is always attri- 
buted to faith in the Scriptures; and which places the goodness 
of God, that is clearly revealed to us, beyond all doubt. But 
this cannot take place, unless we have a real sense and experi- 
ence of its sweetness in ourselves. Wherefore the apostle 
from faith deduces confidence. and from confidence boldness, 


(c) Psalm xii. 6. (d) Psalm xviii. 30. (e) Prov. xxx. 5. 
VOL. Ir A | 


506 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 111. 


For this is his language: ‘In Christ we have boldness and ac- 


cess, with confidence by the faith of him.” (f) These words - 


imply that we have no right faith, but when we can venture 
with tranquillity into the Divine presence. This boldness 
arises only from a certain confidence of the Divine benevolence 
and our salvation; which is so true, that the word “ faith ” is 
frequently used for confidence. 

XVI. The principal hinge on which faith turns is this — that 


we must not consider the promises of mercy, which the Lord 


offers, as true only to others,and not to ourselves; but rather 
make them our own, by embracing them in our hearts. Hence 
arises that confidence, which the same apostle in another place 
calls ‘peace ;”’(g) unless any one would rather make peace 
the effect of confidence. It is a security, which makes the 
conscience calm and serene before the Divine tribunal, and 
without which it must necessarily be harassed and torn 
almost asunder with tumultuous trepidation, unless it happen 
to slumber for a moment in an oblivion of God and itself. 
And indeed it is but for a moment ; for it does not long enjoy 
that wretched oblivion, but is most dreadfully wounded by the 
remembrance, which is perpetually recurring, of the Divine 
judgment. In short, no man is truly a believer, unless he be 
firmly persuaded, that God is a propitious and benevolent F'a- 
ther to him, and promise himself every thing from his good- 
ness; unless he depend on the promises of the Divine be- 
nevolence to him, and feel an undoubted expectation of 
salvation ; as the apostle shows in these words: “If we hold 
fast the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.” (h) 
Here he supposes, that no man has a good hope in the Lord, 
who does not glory with confidence, in being an heir of the 
kingdom of heaven. He is no believer, I say, who does not 
rely on the security of his salvation, and confidently triumph 
over the devil and death, as Paul teaches us in this remarkable 
peroration : ‘I am persuaded (says he) that neither death, nor 
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things 
present, nor things to come, shall be able to separate us from 
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (7) Thus 
the same apostle is of opinion, that ‘‘the eyes of our under- 
standing ”’ are not truly ‘“ enlightened,” unless we discover 
what is the hope of the eternal inheritance, to which we are 
calied. (/) And he every where inculcates, that we have no 
just apprehensions of the Divine goodness, unless we derive 
from it a considerable degree of assurance. 

XVII. Bat some one will object, that the experience of be- 
lievers is very different from this; for that, in recognizing the 


(f) Eph. iii. 12. (g) Rom. v. 1. (h) Heb. iii. 14. 
(¢) Rom. viii. 38. (k) Eph. i. 18. 


cuap. 1.) CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 507 


grace of God towards them, they are not only disturbed with 
inquietude, (which frequently befalls them,) but sometimes also 
tremble with the most distressing terrors. 'The vehemence of 
temptations, to agitate their minds, is so great, that it appears 
scarcely compatible with that assurance of faith of which we 
have been speaking. We must therefore solve this difficulty, 
if we mean to support the doctrine we have advanced. When 
we inculcate, that faith ought to be certain and secure, we con- 
ceive not of a certainty attended with no doubt, or of a security 
interrupted by no anxiety; but we rather affirm, that believers 
have a perpetual conflict with their own diffidence, and are far 
from placing their consciences in a placid calm, never disturbed 
by any storms. Yet, on the other hand, we deny, however 
they may be afflicted, that they ever fall and depart from that 
certain confidence which they have conceived in the Divine 
mercy. The Scripture proposes no example of faith more 
:llustrious or memorable than David, especially if you consider 
the whole course of his life. Yet that his mind was not in- 
variably serene, appears from his innumerable complaints, of 
which it will be sufficient to select a few. When he rebukes 
his soul for turbulent emotions, is he not angry with his un- 
belief? ‘* Why (says he) art thou cast down, O my soul? and 
why art thou disquieted in-me? Hope thou in God.” (2) And, 
certainly, that consternation was an evident proof of diffidence, 
as though he supposed himself to be forsaken by God. In 
another place, also, we find a more ample confession: “T said, in 
my haste, I am cut off from before thine eyes.” (mm) In another 
place, also, he debates with himself in anxious and miserable 
perplexity, and even raises a dispute concerning the nature of 
God: ‘‘ Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Will the Lord cast 
off for ever?’’ What follows is still harsher: ‘ And I said, I 
must fall; these are the changes of the right hand of the Most 
High.’’(m) For, in a state of despair, he consigns himself to 
ruin ; and not only confesses that he is agitated with doubts, 
but, as vanquished in the conflict, considers all as lost ; because 
God has deserted him, and turned to his destruction that hand 
which used to support him. Wherefore it is not without rea- 
son that he says, ‘‘ Return unto thy rest, O my soul; ”’ (0) since 
he had experienced such fluctuations amidst the waves of 
trouble. And yet, wonderful as it is, amidst these concussions, 
faith sustains the hearts of the pious, and truly resembles the 
palm-tree, rising with vigour undiminished by any burdens 
which may be laid upon it, but which can never retard its 
growth; as David, when he might appear to be overwhelmed, 


(Ll) Psalm xlii. 5. (n) Psalm Ixxvii. 7, 9, 10 
(m) Psalm xxxi. 22. (0) Psalm exvi. 7. 


508 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book m1 


yet, chiding himself, ceased not to aspire towards God. Indeed, 
he who, contending with his own infirmity, strives in his anx- 
ieties to exercise faith, is already in a great measure victorious, 
Which we may infer from such passages as this: ‘ Wait on 
the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine 
heart ; wait, I say, on the Lord.” (p) He reproves himself for 
timidity, and repeating the same twice, confesses himself to be 
frequently subject to various agitations. In the mean time, he 
is not only displeased with himself for these faults, but ar- 
dently aspires.towards the correction of them. Now, if we 
enter into a close and correct examination of his character and 
conduct, and compare him with Ahaz, we shall discover a con- 
siderable difference. Isaiah is sent to convey consolation to the 
anxiety of the impious and hypocritical king ; he addresses him 
in these words: ‘“ Take heed, and be quiet ; fear not,” &c. (q) 
But what effect had the message on him? As it had been be- 
fore said, that ‘‘ his heart was moved as the trees of the wood 
are moved with the wind,” (7) though he heard the promise, he 
ceased not to tremble. This therefore is the proper reward and 
punishment of infidelity — so to tremble with fear, that he who 
opens not the gate to himself by faith, in the time of tempta- 
tion departs from God ; but, on the contrary, believers, whom 
the weight of temptations bends and almost oppresses, con- 
stantly emerge from their distresses, though not without trouble 
and difficulty. And because they are conscious of their own 
imbecility, they pray with the Psalmist, ‘‘ Take not the word 
of truth utterly out of my mouth.” (s) By these words we 
are taught, that they sometimes become dumb, as though their 
faith were destroyed ; yet that they neither fail nor turn their 
backs, but persevere in their conflict, and arouse their inactivity 
by prayer, that they may not be stupefied by self-indulgence. 
XVII. To render this intelligible, it is necessary to recur 
to that division of the flesh and the spirit, which we noticed 
in another place, and which most clearly discovers itself in this 
case. ‘The pious heart therefore perceives a division in itself, 
being partly affected with delight, through a knowledge of 
the Divine goodness ; partly distressed with sorrow, through a 
sense of its own calamity; partly relying on the promise of 
the gospel; partly trembling at the evidence of its own ini- 
quity ; partly exulting in the apprehension of life; partly 
alarmed by the fear of death. This variation happens throngh 
the imperfection of faith ; since we are never so happy, during 
the present life, as to be cured of all diffidence, and entirely 
filled and possessed by faith. Hence those conflicts, in which 


(p) Psalm xxvii. 14. (r) Isaiah vii. 2. 
(q) Isaiah vii. 4. (s) Psalm exix. 43. 


CHAP. I1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 509 


the diffidence which adheres to the relics of the flesh, rises up in 
Opposition to the faith formed in the heart. But if, in the mind 
of a believer, assurance be mixed with doubts, do we not always 
come to this point, that faith consists not in a certain and clear, 
but only in an obscure and perplexed knowledge of the Divine 
will respecting us? Not atall. For, if we are distracted by 
various thoughts, we are not therefore entirely divested of faith; 
neither, though harassed by the agitations of diffidence, are we 
therefore immerged in its abyss; nor, if we be shaken, are we 
therefore overthrown. For the invariable issue of this contest 
is, that faith at length surmounts those difficulties, from which, 
while it is encompassed with them, it appears to be in danger. 

XIX. Let us sum it up thus: As soon as the smallest par- 
ticle of grace is infused into our minds, we begin to contem- 
plate the Divine countenance as now placid, serene, and pro- 
pitious to us: it is indeed a very distant prospect, but so clear, 
that we know we are not deceived. Afterwards, in proportion 
as we improve, — for we ought to be continually improving by 
progressive advances, — we arrive at a nearer, and therefore more 
certain view of him, and by continual habit he becomes more 
familiar to us. 'Thus we see, that a mind illuminated by the 
knowledge of God, is at first involved in much ignorance, 
which is removed by slow degrees. Yet it is not prevented 
either by its ignorance of some things, or by its obscure view 
of what it beholds, from enjoying a clear knowledge of the 
Divine will respecting itself, which is the first and principal 
exercise of faith. For, asa man who is confined in a prison, 
into which the sun shines only obliquely and partially through 
a very small window, is deprived of a full view of that luminary, 
yet clearly perceives its splendour, and experiences its beneficial 
influence, — thus we, who are bound with terrestrial and corpo- 
real fetters, though surrounded on all sides with great obscurity, 
are nevertheless illuminated, sufficiently for all the purposes of 
real security, by the light of God shining ever so feebly to 
discover his mercy. 

XX. The apostle beautifully inculcates both these ideas 
in various places. For when he says, that ‘‘ we know in part, 
and we prophesy in part, and see through a glass darkly,” (¢) 
he indicates, how very slender a portion of that wisdom which 
is truly Divine, is conferred upon us in the present life. For 
although these words imply, not only that faith remains im- 
perfect as long as we groan under the burden of the flesh, but 
that our imperfection renders it necessary for us to be unremit- 
tingly employed in acquiring further knowledge, yet he sug- 
gests, that it is impossible for our narrow capacity to compre- 
hend that which is infinite. And this Paul predicates con- 


(t) 1 Cor. xiii. 9, 12. 


510 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 11, 


cerning the whole Church; though every individual of us is 
obstructed and retarded, by his own ignorance, from making 
that progress which might be wished. But what a sure and 
certain experience, of itself, even the smallest particle of faith 
gves us, the same apostle shows in another place, where he 
asserts, that “we, with open face, beholding as in a glass the 
glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image.” (w) 
Such profound ignorance must necessarily involve much doubt 
and trepidation ; especially as our hearts are, by a kind of natu- 
ral instinct, inclined to unbelief. Besides, temptations, vari- 
ous and innumerable, frequently assail us with great violence. 
Above all, our own conscience, oppressed by its incumbent 
load of sin, sometimes complains and groans within itself, 
sometimes accuses itself, sometimes murmurs in secret, and 
sometimes is openly disturbed. Whether, therefore, adversity 
discover the wrath of God, or the conscience find in itself any 
reason or cause of it, thence unbelief derives weapons to oppose 
faith, which are perpetually directed to this object, to persuade 
us, that God is angry with us, and inimical to us; that we may 
not hope for any assistance from him, but may dread him as 
our irreconcilable enemy. 

XXI. To sustain these attacks, faith arms and defends it- 
self with the word of the Lord. And when such a temptation 
as this assails us, —that God is our enemy, because he is angry 
with us,—faith, on the contrary, objects, that he is merciful — 
even when he afflicts, because chastisement proceeds rather 
from love than from wrath. When it is pressed with this 
thought, that God is an avenger of iniquities, it opposes the 
pardon provided for all offences, whenever the sinner makes 
application to the Divine clemency. 'Thus the pious mind, 
how strangely soever it may be agitated and harassed, rises at 
length superior to all difficulties, nor ever suffers its confidence 
in the Divine mercy to be shaken. The various disputes which 
exercise and fatigue it, terminate rather in the confirmation of ~ 
that confidence. It is a proof of this, that when the saints 
conceive themselves to feel most the vengeance of God, they 
still confide their complaints to him, and when there is no ap- 
pearance of his hearing them, they continue to call upon him. 
For what end would be answered by addressing complaint to 
him from whom they expected no consolation? And they 
would never be disposed to call upon him, unless they believed 
him to be ready to assist them. (w) 'Thus the disciples, whom 
Christ reprehends for the weakness of their faith, complained 
indeed that they were perishing, but still they implored his as- 
sistance. Nor, when he chides them on account of their weak 
faith, does he reject them from the number of his children, or 


(u) 2 Cor. iii. 18. (w) Matt. viii. 25. 


CHAP. 11. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. b11 


class them with unbelievers; but he excites them to correct 
that fault. Therefore ‘we repeat the assertion already made, 
that faith is never eradicated from a pious heart, but continues 
firmly fixed, however it may be shaken, and seem to bend this 
way or that; that its light is never so extinguished or smo- 
thered, but that it lies at least concealed under embers; and that 
this is an evident proof, that the word, which is an incorruptible 
seed, produces fruit similar to itself, whose germ never entirely 
perishes’, For, though it is the last cause of despair that can 
happen to saints, to perceive, according to their apprehension 
of present circumstances, the hand of God lifted up for their 
destruction, yet Job asserts the extent of his hope to be such, 
that though he should be slain by him, he would continue to 
trust in him. (2) This, then, is the real state of the case: 
Unbelief is not inwardly predominant in the hearts of the 
pious, but it assails them from without; nor do its weapons 
mortally wound them; they only molest them, or at least inflict 
such wounds as are curable. For faith, according to Paul, 
serves us as a shield, which, being opposed to hostile weapons, 
receives their blows, and entirely repels them, or at least 
breaks their force, so that they penetrate no vital part. When 
faith is shaken, therefore, it is just as if a soldier, otherwise 
bold, were constrained, by a violent stroke of a javelin, to 
change his position and retreat a little ; but when faith itself is 
- wounded, it is just as if his shield were broken by a blow, yet 
not pierced through. For the pious mind will always recover 
so far as to say, with David, “Though I walk through the 
_valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art 
with me.” (y) ‘To walk in the gloom of death is certainly ter- 
rible ; and believers, whatever degree of firmness they have, 
cannot but dread it. But when this thought prevails, that God 
is present with them, and concerned for their salvation, fear at 
once gives way to security. But, as Augustine says, whatever 
powerful engines the devil erects against us, when he possesses 
not the heart, which is the residence of faith, he is kept at a dis- 
tance. Thus, if we judge from the event, believers not only es- 
cape in safety from every battle, so that, receiving an accession 
of vigour, they are soon after prepared to enter the field again, 
but we see the accomplishment of what John says, in his canon- 
ical Epistle: “ This is the victory that overcometh the world, 
even our faith.”’(z) For he affirms, that it will be not only 
victorious in one or in a few battles, or against some particular 
assault, but that it will overcome the whole woild, though it 
should be attacked a thousand times. 

XXII. There is another species of fear and trembling, by 


(x) Job xiii. 15. (y) Psalm xxiii. 4. (z) 1 John v. 4. 


512 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 11. 


which, nevertheless, the assurance of faith is so far from 


being impaired, that it is more firmly established. ‘That is, 
when believers, considering the examples of the Divine ven- 
geance against the impious as lessons given to them, are solici- 
tously cautious not to provoke the wrath of God against them- 
selves by the same crimes; or when, feeling their own misery, 
they learn to place all their dependence on the Lord, without 
whom they perceive themselves to be more inconstant and 
transient than the wind. For when the apostle, by a represen- 
tation of the punishments which the Lord formerly inflicted 
on the Israelitish nation, alarms the fears of the. Corinthians, 
lest they should involve themselves in the same calamities, (a) 
he in no respect weakens their confidence, but shakes off the 
indolence of the flesh, by which faith is rather impaired than 
confirmed. Nor when, from the fall of the Jews, he takes an 
occasion to exhort him that standeth to beware lest he fall, (b) 
does he direct us to waver, as though we were uncertain of 
our stability ; but only forbids all arrogance and presumptuous, 
overweening confidence in our own strength, that the Gentiles 
may not proudly insult over the expelled Jews, into whose 
place they have been received. (c) In that passage, however, 
he not only addresses believers, but in his discourse also in- 
cludes hypocrites, who gloried merely in external appearance. 
For he admonishes not men individually, but instituting a 
comparison between the Jews and the Gentiles, after having 
shown that the rejection of the former was a righteous pu- 
nishment for their unbelief and ingratitude, he exhorts the latter 
not to lose, by pride and haughtiness, the grace of adoption 
recently transferred to them. But as, in the general rejection 
of the Jews, there remained some of them who fell not from 
the covenant of adoption, so among the Gentiles there might 


possibly arise some, who, destitute of true faith, would only be © 


inflated with foolish and carnal confidence, and thus abuse the 
goodness of God to their own ruin. But though you should 
understand this to be spoken to the elect and believers, no in- 
convenience would result from it. For it is one thing to repress 
the temerity, which from remaining carnality sometimes dis- 
‘covers itself in the saints, that it may not produce vain confi- 
dence ; and another to strike the conscience with fear, that it 
may not rely with full security on the mercy of God. 

XXIII. Moreover, when he teaches us to “ work out our 
own salvation with fear and trembling,” (d) he only requires us 
to accustom ourselves, with great self-humiliation, to look up 
to the power of the Lord. For nothing arouses us to repose all 
confidence and assurance of mind on the Lord, so much as dif- 


(a) J Cor. x. 11. (b) 1 Cor, x. 12. (c) Rom. xi.10. — (d) Phil. ii. 11. 


CHAP. 11.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 513 


fidence of ourselves, and anxiety arising from a consciousness 
of our own misery. In which sense, we must understand this 
declaration of the Psalmist, “I will come into thy house in the 
multitude of thy mercy, and in thy fear will I worship.” (e) 
Whence he beautifully connects the confidence of faith, which 
relies on the mercy of God, with that religious fear by which 
we ought to be affected, whenever we come into the presence 
of the Divine Majesty, and from its splendour, discover our 
#xtreme impurity. Solomon also truly pronounces, ‘“ Happy is 
the man who feareth alway; but he that hardeneth his heart 
shall fall into mischief.” (f) But he intends that fear which 
will render us more cautious, not such as would afflict and 
ruin us, such as, when the mind, confounded in itself, recovers 
itself in God; dejected in itself, finds consolation in him; and 
despairing of itself, revives with confidence in him. Wherefore 
nothing prevents believers from being distressed with fear, and 
at the same time enjoying the most serene consolation ; as they 
now turn their eyes towards their own vanity, and now direct 
the attention of their mind to the truth of God. How can fear 
and faith, it will be asked, both reside in the same mind? Just 
as, on the contrary, insensibility and anxiety. For though the 
impious endeavour to acquire a habit of insensibility, that they 
may not be disquieted by the fear of God, the judgment of 
God follows them so closely, that they cannot attain the object 
of their desires. So nothing prevents God from training his 
people to humility, that in their valiant warfare they may re- 
strain themselves within the bounds of modesty. And that 
this was the design of the apostle appears from the context, 
where, as the cause of fear and trembling, he assigns the good 
pleasure of God, by which he gives to his people both rightly 
to will, and strenuously to perform. In the same sense we 
should understand this prediction: ‘The children of Israel 
shall fear the Lord and his goodness ;” (g’) for not only piety 
produces a reverence of God, but also the sweetness of grace 
fills a man that is dejected in himself, with fear and admira- 
tion; causing him to depend upon God, and humbly submit 
himself to his power. 

XXIV. Yet we give no encouragement to the very pestilent 
philosophy, begun to be broached by some semi-Papists in the 
present day. For, being unable to defend that gross notion of 
faith as a doubtful opinion, which has been taught in the 
schools, they resort to another invention, and propose a confi- 
dence mixed with unbelief. They confess, that whenever we 
look to Christ, we find in him a sufficient ground of comforta- 
ble hope; but because we are always unworthy of all those 


(e) Psalm v. 7. (f) Prov. xxviii. 14. (g) Hosea iii. 5. 
VOL. I. 65 


514 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book mu. 


blessings which are offered to us in Christ, they wish us ta 
fluctuate and hesitate in the view of our own unworthiness. 
In short, they place the conscience in such a state between 
hope and fear, that it alternately inclines to both. ‘They also 
connect hope and fear together, so that when the former rises, 
it depresses the latter, and when the latter lifts its head, the 
former falls. Thus Satan, finding that those open engines, 
which he heretofore employed to destroy the assurance of 
faith, are now no longer of any avail, secretly endeavours to 
undermine it. -But what kind of confidence would that be, 
which should frequently give way to despair? If you consider 
Christ, (say they, ) salvation is certain ; if you return to yourself, 
condemnation is certain. Diffidence and good hope, therefore, 
must of necessity alternately prevailin your mind. As though 
we ought to consider Christ as standing apart from us, and not 
rather as dwelling within us. For we therefore expect salva- 
tion from him, not because he appears to us at a great distance, 
but because, having ingrafted us into his body, he makes us 
partakers not only of all his benefits, but also of himself. 
Wherefore I thus retort their own argument: If you consider 
yourself, condemnation is certain; but since Christ, with all his 
benefits, is communicated to you, so that all that he has be- 
comes yours, and you become a member of him, and one with 
him, — his righteousness covers your sins ; his salvation super- 
sedes your condemnation ; he interposes with his merit, that 
your unworthiness may not appear in the Divine presence. In- 
deed, the truth is, that we ought by no means to separate 
Christ from us, or ourselves from him ; but, with all our might, ~ 
firmly to retain that fellowship by which he has united us to 
himself. ‘Thus the apostle teaches us: ‘The body (says he) 
is. dead because of sin; but the spirit is life because of right- 
eousness.”’ (A) According to.this frivolous notion of these 
persons, he ought to have said, Christ indeed has life in him- 
self; but you, being sinners, remain obnoxious to death and 
condemnation. But he speaks in a very different manner ; for 
he states, that the condemnation which we demerit in our- 
selves is swallowed up by the salvation of Christ; and in con- 
firmation of this, uses the same argument as I have adduced, 
that Christ is not without us, but dwells within us; and not 
only adheres to us by an indissoluble connection of fellowship, 
but by a certain wonderful communion coalesces daily more 
and more into one body with us, till he becomes altogether 
one with us. Nor dol deny, what I have lately said, that 
some interruptions of faith at times occur, as its imbecility is 
by the force of violence inclined to this or the other direction. 
. © 


(hk) Rom. viii. 10. 


CHAP. I1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 515 


Thus, in the thick gloom of temptations, its light is smothered ; 
but, whatever befalls it, it never discontinues its efforts in seek- 
ing God. 

XXYV. Bernard reasons in a similar manner, when he pro- 
fessedly discusses this subject, in the Fifth Homily, on the 
Dedication of the Temple. ‘By the goodness of God, medi- 
tating sometimes on the soul, I think I discover in it, as it 
were, two opposite characters. If I view it as it is in itself and 
of itself, 1 cannot utter a greater truth concerning it, than that 
it is -educed to nothing. What need is there at present to enu- 
merate all its miseries, how it is loaded with sins, enveloped 
in darkness, entangled with allurements, inflamed with in- 
ordinate desires, subject to the passions, filled with illusions, 
always prone to evil, inclined to every vice, and finally full of 
ignominy and confusion? Now, if even our righteousnesses, 
when viewed in the light of truth, be found to be ‘as filthy rags,’ (2) 
what judgment will be formed of our acknowledged unright- 
eousness? ‘If the light that is in’ us ‘be darkness, how great 
is that darkness!’ (4) What then? Man is undoubtedly be- 
come like vanity ; man is reduced to nothing; man is .tothing. 
Yet how is he entirely nothing, whom>God magnifies? How 
is he nothing, on whom the heart of God is fixed? Brethren, 
let us revive again. Although we are nothing in our own 
hearts, perhaps there may be something for us latent in the 
heart of God. O Father of mercies, O Father of the miserable, 
how dost thou fix thine heart on us! For thine heart is where 
thy treasure is. But how are we thy treasure, if we are no- 
thing? All nations are before thee as though they existed not ; 
they must be considered as nothing. ‘That is, before thee; not 
within thee: thus it is in the judgment of thy truth ; but not 
thus in the affection of thy clemency. ‘Thou callest things 
which are not, as though they were; and therefore they 
are not, because thou callest things which are not; yet they 
are, because thou callest.them. For though they are not, with 
reference to themselves, yet with thee they are; according to 
this expression of Paul: ‘Not of works, but of him that 
ealleth,’’’(Z) After this, Bernard says, that there is a wonderful 
connection between these two considerations. Things which 
are connected with each other, certainly do not reciprocally 
destroy each other; which he also more plainly declares in the 
following conclusion; ‘ Now, if we diligently examine what 
we are in both considerations, —how in one view we are no- 
thing, and in the other how we are magnified, —I conceive that 
our boasting appears to be restrained; but perhaps it is more 
increased, and indeed established, that we may glory not in. 


fi) Isaiah lxiv. 6. (k) Matt. vi. 23. (1) Rom. ix. 11. 


516 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 1 


ourselves, but in the Lord. If we reflect, if he has decreed 
to save us, we shall shortly be delivered ; ‘this is sufficient to 
recover us. But ascending to a loftier and more extensive 
prospect, let us seek the city of God, let us seek his temple, let 
us seek his palace, let us seek his spouse. I have not forgotten, 
but with fear and reverence I say, We are; but in the heart 
of God. We are; but by his condescending favour, not by 
our own merit.” 

XXVI. Now, the fear of the Lord, which is universally as- 
cribed to all the saints, and which is called sometimes “‘ the begin- 
ning of wisdom,” (mm) sometimes “ wisdom”? (7) itself, although 
it be but one, proceeds from a twofold apprehension of him. 
For God requires the reverence of a Father and of a Master. 
Therefore he who truly desires to worship him, will study to 
pay him ee of ason and the submission of a ser- 
vant. ‘The Lord, by the prophet, distinguishes the obedience 
which is paid to him as a father, by the appellation of ho- 
nour; and the service which he receives as a master, by that 
of fear. ‘‘ A son (says he) honoureth his father, and a servant 
his master. If, then, I be a father, where is mine honour? And 
if I be a master, where is my fear?” (0) But notwithstand- 
ing his distinction between them, you see how he confounds 
them together. Let the fear of the Lord therefore with us be 
a reverence mingled with this honour and fear. Nor is it sur- 
prising, that the same mind cherishes both these affections; for 
he who considers what a Father God is to us, has ample reason, 
even though there were no hell, to dread his displeasure more 
than any death. But, such is the propensity of our nature to 
the licentiousness of transgression, that in order to restrain it 
by ewery possible method, we should at the same time indulge 
this reflection, that all iniquity is an abomination to the Lord, 
under whose power we live, and whose vengeance they will 
not escape, who provoke his wrath against them by the wicked- 
ness of their lives. 

XXVII. Now, the assertion of John, that ‘there is no fear 
in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath 
torment,’ (p) is not at all repugnant to what we have ad- 
vanced. For he speaks of the terror of unbelief, between which 
and the fear of believers there is a wide difference. For the 
impious fear not God from a dread of incurring his displeasure, 
if they could do it with impunity ; but because they know him 
to be armed with vindictive power, they tremble with horror at 
hearing of his wrath. And thus also they fear his wrath, be- 
cause they apprehend it to be impending over them, because 
they every moment expect it to fall on their heads. But the 


(m) Psalm exi. 10. (0) Mal. i. 6. 
(n) Prov. i. 7; ix. 10. Job xxviii. 28. (p) 1 John iv. 18. 


CHAP. 11. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 517 


faithful, as we have observed, fear his displeasure more than 
punishment, and are not disturbed with the fear of punishment, 
as though it were impending over them, but are rendered more 
cautious that they may not incur it. Thus the apostle, when 

addressing believers, says, “‘ Let no man deceive you with 
vain words; for, because of these things cometh the wrath 
of God upon the children of disobedience [or unbelief.] ”’ (q) 


He threatens not its descending on them; but admonishes 


them to consider the wrath of the Lord prepared for. the im- 
pious, on account of the crimes which he had enumerated, that 
they may avoid tempting it. It seldom happens, however, that 
the reprobate are aroused merely by simple threatenings ; but, 
on the contrary, being already obdurate and insensible, when 
God thunders from heaven, if it be only in words, they rather 
harden themselves in rebellion; but when they feel the stroke 
of his hand, they are compelled to fear him, whether they will 
or not. This is commonly called a servile fear, in. opposition 
to a filial fear, which is ingenuous and voluntary. Some per- 
sons curiously introduce an intermediate species of fear; be- 
cause that servile and constrained affection sometimes subdues 
men’s minds, so that they voluntarily approach to the fear of 
God. 

XXVIII. Now, in the Divine benevolence, which is affirmed 
to be the object of faith, we apprehend the possession of salva- 
tion and everlasting life to be obtained. For, if no good can 
be wanting when God is propitious, we have a sufficient cer- 
tainty of salvation, when he himself assures us of his love. 
“ O God, cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved,” (7) 
says the Psalmist. Hence the Scriptures represent this as the 
sum of our salvation, that he has ‘abolished ” all ‘ enmity,” (s) 
and received us into his favour. In which they imply, that 
since God is reconciled to us, there remains no danger, but that 
all things will prosper with us. Wherefore faith, having appre- 
hended the love of God, has promises for the present life and 
the life to come, and a solid assurance of all blessings; but it 
is such an assurance as may be derived from the Divine word. 
For faith certamly promises itself neither longevity, nor ho- 
nour, nor wealth, in the present state; since the Lord has not . 
been pieased to appoint any of these things for us; but is con- 
tented with this assurance, that whatever we may want of the 
conveniences or necessaries of this life, yet God will never 
leave us. But its principal security consists in an expectation 
of the future life, which is placed beyond all doubt by the 
word of God. For whatever miseries and calamities may on 
earth await those who are the objects of the love of God, they 


(q) Eph. v. 6. Col. iii. 6. (r) Psalm ]xxx. 3. (s) Eph. i. 14, 15, 


518 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book m1. 


cannot prevent the Divine benevolence from being a source of 

complete felicity. Therefore, when we meant to express the 
perfection of blessedness, we have mentioned the grace of God, 
as the fountain from which every species of blessings flows 
down to us. And we may generally observe in the Scrip 

tures, that when they treat not only of eternal salvation, but 

of any blessing we enjoy, our attention is recalled to the love 
of God. For which reason David says, that “The loving- 
kindness of God,” when experienced in a pious heart, “is bet- 
ter’? and more desirable “than life” itself. (¢) Finally, if we 
have an abundance of all things to the extent of our desires, 
but are uncertain of the love or hatred of God, our prosperity 
will be cursed, and therefore miserable. But if the paternal 
countenance of God shine on us, even our miseries will be 
blessed, because they will be converted into aids of our salva- 
tion.(w) Thus Paul, after an enumeration of all possible ad- 
versities, glories that they can never separate us from the love 
of God ; and in his prayers, he always begins with the grace of 

God, from which all prosperity proceeds. David likewise op- 
poses the Divine favour alone against all the terrors which dis- 
turb us: “ Though I walk through the valley of the shadow 
of death, (says he,) I will fear no evil, for thou art with me.” (2) 
And we always feel our minds wavering, unless, contented 
with the grace of God, they seek their peace in it, and are 
deeply impressed with the sentiment of the Psalmist: ‘ Blessed 
is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom he 
hath chosen for his own inheritance. , (2) 

XXIX. We make the foundation of faith to 6 the gratu- 
itous promise ; for on that faith properly rests. For, although 
faith admits the veracity of God in all things, whether he com- © 
mand or prohibit, whether he promise or threaten ; though it 
obediently receives his injunctions, carefully observes his pro- 
hibitions, and attends to his threatenings, — yet with the promise 
it properly begins, on that it stands, and in that it ends. For 
it seeks in God for hfe, which is found, not in precepts nor in 
denunciations of punishments, but in the promise of mercy, 
and in that only which is gratuitous ; for a conditional promise, 
which sends us back to our.own works, promises life to us only 
if we find it in ourselves. ‘Therefore, if we wish our faith not 
to tremble and waver, we must support it with the promise of 
salvation, which is voluntarily and liberally offered us by the 
Lord, rather in consideration of our misery, than in respect of 
our worthiness. Wherefore the apostle denominates the gos- 
pel “the word of faith ; .(y) a character which he denies both 
to the precepts and to the promises of the law ; since there is 


(t) Psalm Ixii. 3. (u) Rom. viii. 39. (w) Psalm xxiii. 4. 
(z) Psalm xxxiii. 12. (y) Rom. x. 8. 


cHaP. 11.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 519 


nothing that can establish faith, but that liberal embassy by 
which God reconciles the world to himself. Hence also the 
same apostle frequently connects faith with the gospel; as 
when he states, that “the ministry of the gospel was com- 
mitted to him for obedience to the faith;” that it is “the 
power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth ;” that 
therein is the “righteousness of God revealed from faith to 
faith.” (z) Nor is this to be wondered at; for the gospel 
being “the ministry of reconciliation,” (a) there is no other 
sufficient testimony of the Divine benevolence towards us, the 
knowledge of which is necessary to faith, When we assert, 
therefore, that faith rests on the gratuitous promise, we deny 
not that believers embrace and revere every part of the Divine 
word, but we point out the promise of mercy as the peculiar 
object of faith. ‘Thus believers ought to acknowledge God as 
a judge and avenger of crimes; yet they fix their eyes peculiarly 
on his clemency; described for their contemplation as ‘ gra- 
cious and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great 
mercy ; good to all, and diffusing his tender mercies over all 
his works.” (b) 

XXX. Nor do I regard the clamours of Pighius, or any 
such snarlers, who censure this restriction, as though it divi- 
ded faith, and comprehended only one branch of it. I grant 
that, as I have already said, the general object of faith (as they 
express themselves) is the veracity of God, whether he threaten, 
or give us a hope of his grace. Wherefore the apostle attri- 
butes this to faith, that Noah feared the destruction of the world 
while it was yet unseen.(c) If the fear of impending pu- 
nishment was the work of faith, threatenings ought not to be 
excluded from the definition of it. ‘This indeed is true; but 
these cavillers unjustly charge us with denying that faith re- 
spects every part of the word of God. For we only intend to 
establish these two points; first, that it never stands firmly till 
it comes to the gratuitous promise ; secondly, that we are 
reconciled to God only as it unites us to Christ. Both these 
points are worthy of observation. We are inquiring for a faith 
which may distinguish the sons of God from the reprobate, and 
believers from unbelievers. If any man believes the justice of 
the Divine commands and the truth of the Divine threaten- 
ings, must he therefore be called a believer? By no means. 
Therefore faith can have no stability, unless it be placed on 
the Divine mercy. Now, to what purpose do we argue con- 
cerning faith? Is it not that we may understand the way of 
salvation? But how is faith saving, but by ingrafting us inte 


(z) Rom. i. 5, 16, 17. (6) Psalm exlv. 8, 9. 
(a) 2 Cor. v. 18. (c) Heb. xi. 7. 


520 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK 111 


the body of Christ? There will be no absurdity, then, if, in 
the definition of it, we insist on its principal effect, and asa 
difference, add to the genus that character which separates be- 
lievers from unbelievers. In a word, these malevolent men 
have nothing to carp at in this doctrine, without involving in 
the same reprehension with us, the apostle Paul, who parti- 
cularly styles the gospel “ the word of faith.” (d) 

XX XI. ° Hence, again, we infer, what has been before stated, 
that the word is as necessary to faith, as the living root of the 
tree is to the fruit ; because, according to David, none can 
trust in God but those who know his name. (e) But this 
knowledge proceeds not from every man’s own imagination, 
but from the testimony which God himself gives of his own 
goodness. This the same Psalmist confirms in another place: 
“Thy salvation according to thy word.” (f) Again: ‘ Save 

e: I hoped in thy word.” (g) Where we must observe the 
relation of faith to the word, and that salvation is the conse- 
quence of it... Yet we exclude not the Divine power, by a 
view of which, unless faith be supported, it will never ascribe 
’ to God the honour that is due to him. Paul seems to relate a 
trifling or uninteresting cireumstanee concernmg Abraham, ~ 
when he says, that he was persuaded that God, who had pro- 
mised him the blessed seed, ‘‘ was able also to perform. ”(h) In 
another place, respecting himself he says, “I know whom I 
have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that 
which I have committed unto him against that day.” (7) But 
if any one considers, how many doubts respecting the power 
of God frequently intrude themselves, he will fully acknow- 
ledge, that they who magnify it as it deserves, have made no 
small progress in faith. We shall all confess, that God is able 
to do whatever he pleases; but whilst the smallest temptation 
strikes us with consternation and terror, it is evident that we 
derogate from the Divine power, to which we prefer the 
menaces of Satan in opposition to the promises of God. ‘This 
is the reason why Isaiah, when he would impress the hearts 
_of the people with an assurance of salvation, discourses in so 
magnificent a manner concerning the infinite power of God. 
He frequently appears, after having begun to treat of the hope 
of pardon and reconciliation, to digress to another subject, and 
to wander through prolix and unnecessary cireumlocutions, 
celebrating the wonders of the Divine government in the ma- 
chine of heaven and earth, and the whole order of nature: yet 
there is nothing but what is applicable to the present subject ; 
for, unless the omnipotence of God be presented to our eyes 


(d) Rom. x. 8. (g) Psalm cxix. 146, 147. 
(e) Psalm ix. 10. (Ah) Rom. iv. 21. 
(f) Psalm exix. 41. (t) 2 Tim. 1. 12. 


CHAP. 11.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 521 


_our ears will not attend to his word, or not esteem it according 
‘to its worth. , Moreover, the Scripture there speaks of his effec- 
tual power ; for piety, as we have elsewhere seen, always makes 
a useful and practical application of the power of God; and 
particularly proposes to itself those of his works in which he 
has discovered himself as a father. Hence the frequent men- 
tion of redemption in the Scriptures, from which the Israelites 
might learn, that God, who had once been the author of salva- 
tion, would be its everlasting preserver. David also teaches us 
by his own example, that the private benefits which God has 
conferred on an individual, conduce to the confirmation of his 
faith for the future : even when he seems to have deserted us, 
we ought to extend our views further, so as to derive encou- 
ragement from his ancient benefits, as it is said in another 
psalm: “I remember the days of old; I meditate on all thy 
works,” &c.(k) Again: “I will remember the works of_the 
Lord: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.” (2) ‘But 
since, without the word, all our conceptions of the power and 
works of God are unprofitable and transient, we have suffi- 
cient reason for asserting, that there can be no faith, without 
the illumination of Divine grace. But here a question might 
be raised — What must be thought of Saran and Rebecca, both 
of whom, apparently impelled by the zeal of faith, transgressed 
the limits of the word? Sarah, when she ardently desired the 
promised son, gave her maid-servant to her husband. ‘That 
she sinned in many respects, is not to be denied; but I now 
refer to her error in being carried away by her zeal, and 
not restraining herself within the bounds of the Divine word. 
Yet it is certain, that this desire proceeded from faith. Rebec- 
ea, having been divinely assured of the election of her son Jacob, 
procures him the benediction by a sinful artifice ; she deceives 
her husband, the witness and minister of the grace of God ; 
she constrains her son to utter falsehoods ; she corrupts the truth 
of God by various frauds and impostures; finally, by expg-_ 
sing his promise to ridicule, she does all in her power to destroy 
it And yet this transaction, however criminal and _ reprehen- 
sinie, was not unaccompanied with faith; because she had to 
overcome many obstacles, that she might aspire earnestly to 
that which, without any expectation of worldly advantage, 
was pregnant with great troubles and dangers. So we must 
uot pronounce the holy patriarch Isaac to be entirely destitute 
of faith, because, after having been divinely apprized of the 
translation of the honour to his younger son, he nevertheless 
ceases not to be partial to Esau, his first-born. ‘These exam- 
ples certainly teach that errors are frequently mixed with faith, 


(k) Psalm exliu. 5. (1) Psalm Ixxvii. 11 
VOL. I. 66 


» 


522 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK Its 


‘yet that faith, when real, always retains the preéminence. 
For, as the particular error of Rebecca did not annul the effect 
of the benediction, so neither did it destroy the faith which 
generally predominated in her mind, and was the principle and 
cause of that action. Nevertheless, Rebecca, in this instance, 
has discovered how liable the human mind is to error, as soon 
as it allows itself the smallest license. But though our defi- 
ciency or imbecility obscures faith, yet it does not extinguish 
it: in the mean time it reminds us how solicitously we ought 
to attend to the declarations of God; and confirms what we 
have said, that faith decays unless it be supported by the 
word; as the minds of Sarah, Isaac, and Rebecca, would have 
been lost in their obliquities, if they had not, by the secret re- 
straint of God, been kept in obedience to the word. 

XXXII. Again: it is not without reason that we include all 


the promises in Christ ; (7) as the apostle in the knowledge of ~ 


him includes the whole gospel ; and in another place teaches, 
that “all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him 
amen.” (n) The reason of this is plain. For, if God pro- 
mises any thing, he gives a proof of his benevolence; so that 
there is no promise of his which is not a testimony of his love. 
Nor does it affect the argument, that the impious, when they 
are loaded with great and continual benefits from the Divine 
goodness, render themselves obnoxious to a heavier judgment. 
For since they neither think nor acknowledge that they re- 
ceive those things from the hand of the Lord, —or if ever they 
acknowledge it, yet they never reflect within themselves on 
his goodness, — they cannot thereby be instructed concerning 
his mercy, any more than the brutes, who, according to the 
circumstances of their condition, receive the same effusion of 
his liberality, but never perceive it. Nor is it any more repug- 
nant to our argument, that by generally rejecting the promises 
designed for them, they draw down on themselves severer 
vengeance. For although the efficacy of the promises is ma- 
nifested only when they have obtained credit with us, yet their 
force and propriety are never extinguished by our unbelief or 
ingratitude. Therefore, when the Lord by his promises invites 
aman not only to receive, but also to meditate on the effects 
of his goodness, he at the same time gives him a declaration 
of his love. Whence we must return to this principle, that 
every promise is an attestation of the Divine love to us. But 
it is beyond: all controversy, that no man is loved by God but 
in Christ; (0) he is the ‘beloved Son,” in whom the love of 
the Father perpetually rests, and then from him diffuses itself 
to us; as Paul says, that we are ‘accepted in the beloved.” (p) 


(m) 1 Cor. ii. 2. * (nm) 2 Cor. i. 20. (0) Matt. 111.17; xvii. 5. (p) Eph « 6. 


Be 


CHAP. 11.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 523 


It must therefore be communicated to us by his mediation. (q) 
Wherefore the apostle, in another place, calls him “our 
peace,” (7) and elsewhere represents him as the bond by which 
God is united to us in his paternal love. It follows, that 
whenever any promise is presented to us, our eyes must be 
directed to him; and that Paul is correct in stating, that all 
the promises of God are confirmed and accomplished in him. (s) 
This is opposed by some examples. For it is not credible that 
Naaman the Syrian, when he inquired of the prophet respecting 
the right method of worshipping God, (t) was instructed con- 
cerning the Mediator; yet his piety is commended. Corne- 
lius,(w) a Gentile and Roman, could scarcely be acquainted 
with what was not universally or clearly known among. the 
Jews; yet his benefactions and prayers were acceptable to 
God ; and the sacrifices of Naaman received the approbation of 
the prophet, which neither of these persons could have ob- 
tained without faith. Similar was the case of the eunuch to 
whom Philip was conducted ;(w) who, unless he had been 
possessed of some faith, would never have incurred the labour 
and expense of along and difficult journey, for the sake of 
worshipping at Jerusalem. Yet we see how, on being interro- 
gated by Philip, he betrayed his ignorance of the Mediator. I 
confess, indeed, that their. faith was in some measure implicit, 
not only with respect to the person of Christ, but with respect 
to the power and office assigned him by the Father. At the 
same time it is certain that they had imbibed principles which 
afforded them some notion of Christ, however slight ; nor 
should this be thought strange; for the eunuch would not 
have hastened from a remote country to Jerusalem to adore an 
unknown God; nor did Cornelius spend so much time, after 
having once embraced the Jewish religion, without acquainting 
himself with the rudiments of sound doctrine. With regard to 
Naaman, it would have: been extremely absurd for Elisha, who 
directed him concerning the minutest particulars, to have been 
silent on the most important subject. Although their know- 
ledge of Christ, therefore, was obscure, yet to suppose that 
they had none is unreasonable; because they practised the 
sacrifices of the law, which must have been distinguished by 
their end, that is, Christ, from the illegitimate sacrifices of the 
heathen. 

XXXII. “This simple and external demonstration of the 
Divine word ought, indeed, to be fully sufficient for the pro- 
duction of faith, if it were not obstructed by our blindness and 
petverseness. But such is our propensity to error, that our 


(q) Eph. i. 14. (s) Rom. xv. 8. (uw) Acts x. 31. 
(r) Rom. vii. 3. (t) 2 Kings v. 17—19. (w) Acts viii. 17, 31. 


5QA. INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK IL. 


mind can never adhere to Divine truth; such is our dulness, 
that we can never discern the light of it. Therefore nothing 
is effected by the word, without the illumination of the Holy 
Spirit. Whence it appears, that faith is far superior to human 
intelligence. Nor is it enough for the mind to be illuminated 
by the Spirit of God, unless the heart also be strengthened and 
supported by his power. On this point, the schoolmen are 
altogether erroneous, who, in the discussion of faith, regard it 
as a simple assent of the understanding, entirely neglecting the 
confidence and assurance of the heart. Faith, therefore, is a 
singular gift of God in two respects; both as the mind is en- 
lightened to understand the truth of God, and as the heart is 
established in it. For the Holy Spirit not only originates 
faith, but increases it by degrees, till he conducts us by it all 
the way to the heavenly kingdom. ‘That good thing,” says 
Paul, ‘‘ which was committed unto thee, keep, by the Holy 
Ghost which dwelleth in us.” (2) If it be urged, that Paul 
declares the Spirit to be given to us ‘by the hearing of 
faith,’ (y) this objection is easily answered. If there were 
only one gift of the Spirit, it would be absurd to represent the 
Spirit as the effect of faith, of which he is the author and 
cause; but when the apostle is treating of the gifts with 
which God adorns his Church, to lead it, by advancements in 
faith, forwards to perfection, we need not wonder that he as- 
cribes those gifts to faith, which prepares us for their reception. 
It is accounted by the world exceedingly paradoxical, when it 
is affirmed, that no one can believe in Christ, but he to whom 
it is given. But this is partly for want of considering the 
depth and sublimity of heavenly wisdom, and the extreme 
dulness of man in apprehending the mysteries of God, and 
partly from not regarding that firm and steadfast constancy of 
heart, which is the principal branch of faith. 

XXXIV. But if, as Paul tells us, no one is acquainted with 
the will of a man but ‘the spirit of a man which is in him,” (z) 
how could man be certain of the will of God? And if we are 
uncertain respecting the truth of God in those things which 
are the subjects of our present contemplation, how should we 
have a greater certainty of it, when the Lord promises such 
things as no eye sees and no heart conceives? Human saga- 
city is here so completely lost, that the first step to improvement, 
in the Divine school, is to forsake it. For, like an interposing 
veil, (a) it prevents us from discovering the mysteries of God, 
which are revealed only to babes.(6) ‘For flesh and blood 
hath not revealed,” (c) and ‘‘ the natural man receiveth not the 


(z) 2 Tim. i. 14. (z) 1 Cor. i. 11. (b) Matt. xi. 25. 
(y) Gal. ni. 2. (a) 2 Cor. iui. 14. (c) Matt. xvi. 17. 


CHAP. I1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 525 


things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him ; 
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually dis- 
cerned.” (d) ‘The aids of the Spirit therefore are necessary, or 
rather it is his influence alone that is efficacious here. ‘‘ Who 
hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his 
counsellor ?’’(e) but “‘the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the 
deep things of God;”(f) and through him, “ we have the 
mind of Christ.”(g) ‘‘No man can come to me (says he) 
except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him. Every 
man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, 
cometh unto me. Not that any man hath seen the Father, save 
he which is of God.” ‘Therefore, as we can never come to 
Christ, unless we are drawn by the Spint of God, so when we 
are drawn, we are raised both in mind and in heart above the 
reach of our own understanding. For illuminated by him, the 
soul receives, as it were, new eyes for the contemplation of 
heavenly mysteries, by the splendour of which it was before 
dazzled. And thus the human intellect, irradiated by the 
light of the Holy Spirit, then begins to relish those things 
which pertain to the kingdom of God, for which before it had 
not the smallest taste. Wherefore Christ? s two disciples receive 
no benefit from his excellent discourse to them on the mysteries 
of his kingdom, (/) till he opens their understanding that they 
may understand the Scriptures. Thus, though the apostles 
were taught by his Divine mouth, yet the Spirit of Truth must 
be sent to them, to instil into their minds the doctrine which 
they had heard with their ears. (7) "The word of God is like 
the sun shining on al] to whom it is preached; but without 
any benefit to the blind. But in this respect we are all blind 
by nature ; therefore it cannot penetrate into our minds, unless 
the internal teacher, the Spirit, make way for it by his illu- 
mination. » 

XXXV. Ina former part of this work, relating to the cor- 
ruption of nature, we have shown more at large the inability 
of men to believe ; therefore I shall not fatigue the reader by 
a repetition of the same things. Let it suffice that faith itsulf, 
which we possess not by nature, but which is given us by the 
Spirit, is called by Paul “the spirit of faith.” (4) Therefore 
he prays ‘‘that God would fulfil,” im the Thessalonians, “all 
the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with 
power.’ (/) By calling faith “the work” of God, and “the 
good pleasure of his goodness,” he denies it to be the proper 
effect of human exertion ; .and not content with that, he adds 
that it is a specimen of the Divine power. When he says to 


(d) 1 Cor, i. 14. (f) 1 Cor. ii. 10. (hk) Luke xxiv. 45. (k) 2 Cor. iv. 13. 
(e) Rom. xi. 34. (g) 1 Cor. ii. 16. (¢) John xvi. 13. (1) 2 Thess. 1. 11. 


526 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 11. 


the Corinthians, that faith stands ‘not in the wisdom of men, 
but in the power of God,’ (7) he speaks indeed of external 
miracles; but because the reprobate have no eyes to behold 
them, he comprehends also the inward seal which he else- 
where mentions. And that he may more illustriously display 
his liberality in so eminent a gift, God deigns not to bestow 
it promiscudusly on all, but by a singular privilege imparts it 
to whom he will. We have already cited testimonies to prove 
this point., Augustine, who is a faithful expositor of them, 
says, ‘‘It was in order to teach us that the act of believing is 
owing to the Divine gift, not to human merit, that our Saviour 
declared, ‘No man can come to me, except the Father which 
hath sent me draw him; (0) and except it were given unto him 
of my Father.’(p) It is wonderful, that two. persons hear; 
one despises, the other ascends. Let him who despises, impute 
it to himself; let him who ascends, not arrogate it to himself.” 
In another place he says, ‘‘ Wherefore is it given to one, not to 
another? Iam not ashamed to reply, This is a depth of the 
cross. From I know not what depth of the Divine judgments, 
which we cannot scrutinize, proceeds all our ability. That I 
can, I see; whence I can, I see not; unless that I see thus far, 
that it is of God. But why one, and not another? It is too 
much for me; it isan abyss, adepth of the cross. I can exclaim 
with admiration, but not demonstrate it in disputation.” The 
sum of the whole is this —that Christ, when he illuminates us 
with faith by the power of his Spirit, at the same time ingrafts 
us into his body, that we may become partakers of all his 
benefits. 

XXXVI. It next remains, that what the mind has imbibed, 
be transfused into the heart. For the word of God is not re- 
ceived by faith, if it floats on the surface of the brain; but 
when it has taken deep root in the heart, so as to become an 
impregnable fortress to sustain and repel all the assaults of 
temptation. But if it be true that the right apprehension of 
the mind proceeds from the illumination of the Spirit, his 
energy is far more conspicuous in such a confirmation of the 
heart ; the diffidence of the heart being’ greater than the blind- 
ness of the mind ; and the furnishing of the heart with assu- 
rance being more difficult than the communication of know- 
ledge to the understanding. Therefore the Spirit acts as a seal, 
to seal on our hearts those very promises, the certainty of 
which he has previously impressed on our minds, and serves as 
an earnest to confirm and establish them. ‘‘ After that ye 
believed,” says the apostle, ‘‘ ye were sealed with that Holy 
Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance.” (q) 


(n) 1 Cor. ii. 5. (0) John vi. 44. (p) John vi. 65. (g) Eph. i. 13. 


CHAP. I] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 527 


Do you see how he shows that the hearts of believers are 
impressed by the Spirit, as by a seal? How, for this reason, 
he calls him “the Spirit.of promise,” because he ratifies the 
gospel to us? So, to the Corinthians, he says, ‘‘ He which 
hath anointed us, is God; who hath also sealed us, and given 
the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.” (r) And in another 
place, where he speaks of the confidence and boldness of hope, 
he makes ‘‘the earnest of the Spirit’ (s) the foundation of it. 

XXXVII. I have not forgotten what I have already ob- 
served, and the remembrance of which experience incessantly 
renews, that faith is agitated with various doubts; so that the 
minds of the pious are seldom at ease, or at best enjoy nota 
state of perpetual tranquillity. But whatever assaults they may 
sustain, they either emerge from the very gulf of temptation, 
or remain firm in their station. ‘This assurance alone nourishes 
and supports faith, while we are satisfied of what is declared 
by the Psalmist, ‘‘God is our refuge and strength, a very 
present help in trouble. ‘Therefore will we not fear, though 
‘the earth be removed, and the mountains be carried into the 
midst of the sea.” (¢) This most delightful repose is celebrated — 
also in another psalm: “I laid me down and slept ; I awaked ; 
for the Lord sustained me.” (w) “Not that David enjoyed a 
happy cheerfulness of soul perpetually flowing on in one even 
tenor; but having tasted the grace of God according to the 
proportion of his faith, he glories in intrepidly despising what- 
ever could disquiet the peace of his mind. ‘Therefore the 
Scripture, intending to exhort us to faith, commands us to “ be 
quiet.”” In Isaiah, ‘‘In quietness and in confidence shall be 
your strength.” (w) In the Psalms, “ Rest in the Lord, and 
wait patiently for him.” (2) With which corresponds the ob- 
servation of the apostle to the Hebrews, ‘‘ Ye have need of 
patience.” (y) 

XXXVIII. Hence we may judge, how pernicious that dog- 
ma of the schoolmen is, that it is impossible to decide concern- 
ing the favour of God towards us, any otherwise than from 
moral conjecture, as every individual may deem himself not 
unworthy of it. If it must be determined by our works how 
the Lord is affected towards us, I admit. we cannot attain this 
object even by a very slight conjecture ; but as faith ought to cor- 
respond to the simple and gratuitous promise, there remains no 
room for doubting. For with what confidence, pray, shall we 
be armed, if we reason that God is propitious to us on this con- 
dition, provided the purity of our life deserve it? But having 
determined on a separate discussion of these points, I shali pur- 


(r) 2 Cor.i.21. = (s) 1 Cor. v. 5. (t) Psalm xlvi. 1, 2. (uw) Psalm iii. & 
(w) Isaiah xxx. 16, ‘ (w) Psalm xxxvii. 7. (y) Heb. x. 36. 


528 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 11 


sue them no further at present ; especially since it is manifest 
that nothing is more opposite to faith than either conjecture or 
any thing else approaching to doubt. And they very mischie- 
vously pervert to this purpose the observation of the Preacher, 
which is frequently in their mouths: “ No man knoweth 
whether he is worthy of hatred or of love.” (z) For not to 
observe that this passage is falsely rendered in the Vulgate 
translation, yet the meaning of Solomon, in such expressions, 
must be clear even to children; it is, that if any one wishes, 
from the present state of things, to judge who are the objects 
of Divine love or hatred, he labours in vain, and distresses 
himself to no good purpose ; since “there is one event to the 
righteous and to the wicked ; to him that sacrificeth, and to him 
that sacrificeth not.” (a) Whence it follows that God neither 
testifies his love to those whom he prospers with success, nor 
invariably discovers his hatred against those whom he plunges 
into affliction. And this observation is designed to reprove the 
vanity of the human understanding ; since it is so extremely stu- 
pid respecting things most necessary to be known. He had just 
before said, “‘ That which befalleth the sons of men, befalleth 
beasts; as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have 
all one breath; so that a man hath no preéminence above a 
beast.” (6) If any one would infer from this, that the opinion 
which we hold of the immortality of the soul rests upon mere 
conjecture, would he not be deservedly deemed insane? Are 
those persons, then, in a state of sanity, who conclude that there 
is no certainty of the favour of God, because it cannot be at- 
tained from the carnal contemplation of present things ? 

XX XIX. But they plead that it is rash presumption in men 
to arrogate to themselves an undoubted knowledge of the Di- 
vine will. ‘This, indeed, I would concede to them, if we pre- 
tended to subject the incomprehensible counsel of God to the 
slenderness of our understanding. But when we simply assert 
with Paul, that ‘‘ we have received, not the spirit of the world, 
but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the 
things that are freely given to us of God,” (c) what opposition 
can they make to us, without at the same time insulting the, 
Spirit of God? But if it be a horrible sacrilege to accuse the 
revelation which proceeds from him either of falsehood, or of 
uncertainty, or of ambiguity, wherein do we err in affirming 
its certainty? But they exclaim, that we betray great temerity, 
in thus presuming to boast of the Spirit of Christ. Who could 
believe the stupidity of men desirous of being esteemed teach- 
ers of the world, to be so extreme as to stumble in this shame- - 
ful manner at the first elements of religion? It would certainly 


(z) Eccl. ix.1. (a) Ecel.ix.2. (6) Eccl. iti. 19. (c) 1 Cor. ii. 12. 


CHAP.d1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 529 


-he incredible to me, if it were not proved by the writings 
which they have published. Paul pronounces them alone to 
be the sons of God, who are led by his Spirit : (d) these men 
will have those who are the sons of God to be led by their own 
spirit, but to be destitute of the Spirit of God. He teaches, 
that we call God our Father at the suggestion of the Spirit, 
who “ beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children 
of God: ” (e) these men, though they forbid not all invocation 
of God, yet deprive us of the Spirit, by whose influence alone 
he can besrightly invoked. He denies them to be the servants 
of Christ, who are not led by the Spirit of Christ: (/) these 
men invent a sort of Christianity, to which the Spirit of Christ 
is not necessary. He admits no hope of a happy resurrection, 
unless we experience the Spirit dwelling in us: (g) these men 
fabricate a hope unattended by such experience. But perhaps 
they will answer, that they deny not the necessity of our being 
endued with the Spirit; but that it is the part of modesty and 
humility not to acknowledge our possession of him. What, 
then, is the meaning of the apostle in this exhortation to the 
Corinthians — “ Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith ; 
prove your own selves ; know ye not yourselves, how that Jesus 
Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?’’(h) But says 
John, “‘ We know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which 
he hath given us.” (z) And do we not call in question the 
promises of Christ, when we wish to be accounted the servants 
of God without the possession of his Spirit, whom he has an- 
nounced that he will pour out upon all his people? (k) Do we 
not injure the Holy Spirit, if we separate faith from him, which 
is his peculiar work? ‘These being the first rudiments of 
_ piety, it is a proof of most miserable blindness, that Chris- 
tlans are censured as arrogant for presuming to glory in the 
presence of the Holy Spirit, without which glorying Christi- 
anity itself cannot exist. But they exemplify the truth of 
Christ’s assertion, “The world knoweth not the Spirit of truth ; 
but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in 
you.”’ (2) 

XL. Not satisfied with one attempt to destroy the stability 
of faith, they assail it again from another quarter; by arguing, 
that although we may form a judgment concerning the favour 
of God from the present state of our righteousness, yet the 
knowledge of final perseverance remains in suspense. ‘Truly 
we are left in possession of an admirable confidence of salva- 
tion, if we can only conclude from mere conjecture that we 
are in the favour of God at the present instant, but are utterly 


(d) Rom. viii. 14. (f) Rom. viii. 9. (h) 2 Cor. xiii. 5. (k) Isaiah xliv. ?. 
(e) Rom. viii. 16. (g) Rom. viii. 11. © (@) 1 John iii. 24. (/) John xiv. 7. 
VoL. I. 67 


530 INSTITUTES OF THE |BOOK IIL, 


ignorant what may be our fate to-morrow. The apostle ex- 
presses a very different opinion: “I am persuaded (says he) 
that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor 
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor 
depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from 
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (m) 
They attempt to evade the force of this, by a frivolous pre- 
tence that the apostle had it from a particular revelation ; but 
they are too closely pressed to avail themselves of this evasion. 
For he is there treating of the benefits resulting from faith to 
all believers in common, not of any which were peculiar to his 
own experience. But the same apostle, they say, in another 
place, excites fear in us, by the mention of our imbecility and 
inconstancy. ‘‘ Let him (says he) that thinketh he standeth, 
take heed lest he fall.”’(~) It is true; but not a fear by which 
we may be thrown into consternation, but from which we may 
learn to “‘ humble ourselves,” as Peter expresses it, ‘‘ under the 
mighty hand of God.’”’ Besides, how preposterous is it to limit 
to a moment of time the assurance of faith, whose nature it is 
to go beyond the bounds of the present life, and reach forward 
to a future immortality! Since believers, then, ascribe it to 
the grace of God that they are illuminated by his Spirit, and 
enjoy through faith a contemplation of the heavenly life, such 
a glorying is so remote from arrogance, .that, if any one be 
ashamed, to confess it,:he rather betrays extreme ingratitude by 
a criminal suppression of the Divine goodness, than gives an 
evidence of modesty or humility. 

XLI. Because we thought that the nature of faith could not 
be better or more clearly expressed than by the substance of 
the promise, which is the proper foundation on which it rests, 
and the removal of which would occasion its fall or annihila- 
tion, — it is from the promise, therefore, that we have taken our 
definition, which, nevertheless, is not at all at variance with 
that definition, or rather description, of the apostle, which he 
accommodates to his argument; where he says, that “ faith is 
the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not 
seen.”’(0) For by tmocracis, which is the word he uses, and 
which is rendered substance, he intends a prop, as it were, on 
which the pious mind rests and reclines; as though he had 
said, that faith is a certain and secure possession of those things 
which are promised to us by God. Unless any one would 
rather understand ircocracs of confidence, to which I shall not 
object, though I adopt that idea which is the more generally 
received. Again: to signify that even till the last day, when 
the books shall be opened, these objects are too sublime to be 


(m) Rom. viii. 38 (n) 1 Cor. x. 12. (0) Heb. xi. 1. 


CHAF. 11.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 531 


perceived by our senses, seen with our eyes, or handled with 
our hands ; and that, in the mean time, they are enjoyed by us 
only as we exceed the capacity of our own understanding, 
extend our views beyond all terrestrial things, and even rise 
above ourselves; he has added, that this security of possession 
relates tc things which are the objects of hope, and therefore 
invisible. [or “hope that is seen (as Paul observes) is not 
hope ; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?” (p) 
But when he calls it an evidence, or proof, or (as Augustine 
has frequently rendered it) a conviction of things not seen, (for 
the Greek word is fAsyxog,) it 1s Just as though he had called it 
the evidence of things not apparent, the vision of things not 
seen, the perspicuity of things obscure, the presence of 
things absent, the demonstration of things concealed. For 
the mysteries of God, of which description are the things that 
pertain to our salvation, cannot be discerned in themselves, and 
in their own nature; we only discover them in his word, of 
whose veracity we ought to be so firmly persuaded, as to con- 
sider all that he speaks as though it were already performed 
and accomplished. But how can the mind elevate itself to re- 
ceive such a taste of the Divine goodness, without being all 
inflamed with mutual love to God? For the plenitude of 
happiness, which God has reserved for them who fear him, 
cannot be truly known, but it must at the same time excite a 
vehement affection. And those whom it has once affected, it 
draws and elevates towards itself. ‘Therefore we need not 
wonder if a perverse and malicious heart never feel this affec- 
tion, which conducts us to heaven itself, and introduces us to 
the most secret treasures of God and the most sacred recesses 
of his kingdom, which must not be profaned by the entrance 
of an impure heart. For what the schoolmen (q) advance con- 
cerning the priority of charity to faith and hope, is a mere 
reverie of a distempered imagination, since it is faith alone 
which first produces charity in us. How much more accu- 
rately Bernard speaks! ‘I believe,” says he, “ that the testi- 
mony of conscience, which Paul calls the rejoicing of the pious, 
consists in three things. For it is necessary to believe, first of 
all, that you cannot have remission of sins but through the 
mercy of God; secondly, that you cannot have any good work, 
unless he bestow this also; lastly, that you cannot by any 
works merit eternal life, unless that also be freely given.” (7) 
Just after he adds, ‘“‘that these things are not sufficient, but are 
a beginning of faith; because in believing that sins can only 
be forgiven by God, we ought at the same time to consider 
that they are forgiven us, till we are also persuaded, by the tes- 


(p) Roun. viii. 24. (q) Lombard (r) Bernard. Serm. |. in Annunciat, 


532 INSTITUTES OF THE "BOOK In 


timony of the Holy Spirit, that salvation is laid up for us: 
because God forgives sins; he also bestows merits; he like- 
wise confers rewards; it is not possible to remain in this be- 
ginning.” But these and other things must be treated in the 
proper places; it may suffice, at present, to ascertain wherein 
faith itself consists. 

XLII. Now, wherever this living faith shall be found, it 
must necessarily be attended with the hope of eternal salvation 
as its inseparable concomitant, or rather must originate and 
produce it; since the want of this hope would prove us to be 
utterly destitute of faith, however eloquently and beautifully 
we might discourse concerning it. For if faith be, as has been 
stated, a certain persuasion of the truth of God, that it can nei- 
ther lie, nor deceive us, nor be frustrated, — they who have felt 
this assurance, likewise expect a period to arrive when God 
will accomplish his promises, which, according to their persua- 
sion, cannot but be true; so that, in short, hope is no other 
than an expectation of those things which faith has believed 
to be truly promised by God. ‘Thus faith believes the vera- 
city of God, hope expects the manifestation of it in due time; 
faith believes him to be our Father, hope expects him always 
to act towards us in this character ; faith believes that eternal 
life is given to us, hope expects it one day to be revealed ; 
faith is the foundation on which hope rests, hope nourishes and 
sustains faith. For as no man can have any expectations from 
God, but he who has first believed his promises, so also the 
imbecility of our faith must be sustained and cherished by pa- 
tient hope and expectation, lest it grow weary and faint. For 
which reason, Paul rightly places our salvation in hope. (s) 
For hope, while it is silently expecting the Lord, restrains 
faith, that it may not be too precipitate ; it confirms faith, that 
it way not waver in the Divine promises, or begin to doubt of 
the truth of them; it refreshes it, that it may not grow weary; 
it extends it to the farthest goal, that it may not fail in the 
midst of the course, or even at the entrance of it. Finally, 
hope, by continually renewing and restoring faith, causes it 
frequently to persevere with more vigour than hope itself. But 
in how many cases the assistance of hope is necessary to the 
es‘ablishment of faith, will better appear, if we consider how 
many species of temptations assail and harass those who have 
embraced the word of God. First, the Lord, by deferring the 
execution of his promises, frequently keeps our minds in sus- 
pense longer than we wish ; here it is the office of hope to obey 
the injunction of the prophet — “ though it tarry, wait for it.” (¢) 
Senetimes he not only suffers us to languish, but openly mani- 


(s) Rom. viii. 24. (t) Heb. ii. 3. 


CHAP. H.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 533. 


fests his indignation: in this case it is much more necessary 
to have the assistance of hope, that, according to the language 
of another prophet, we may ‘‘ wait upon the Lord that hideth 
his face from Jacob.” (w) Scoffers also arise, as Peter says, 
and inquire, ““ Where is the promise of his coming? for since 
the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from 
the beginning of the creation.” (w) And the flesh and the 
world whisper the same things into our ears. Here faith must 
be supported by the patience of hope, and kept fixed on the 
contemplation of eternity, that it may consider “a thousand 
years as one day.” (x) 

XLII. On account of this union and affinity, the Scrip- 
ture sometimes uses the words faith and hope without any 
distinction. For when Peter says that we “are kept by the 
power oi God through faith unto salvation, ready to be re- 
vealed,” (vy) he attributes to faith, what was more applicable to 
hope; and not without reason, since we have already shown, 
that hope is no other than the nourishment and strength of 
faith. ~ Sometimes they are joined together, as in a passage of 
the same Epistle —‘‘ that your faith and hope might be in 
God.” (z) But Paul, in the Epistle to the Philippians, (a) de- 
duces expectation from hope ; because in patient hope we sus- 
pend our desires till the arrival of God’s appointed time. All 
which may be better understood from the tenth chapter of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews, (6) which I’have already cited. In 
another place, Paul, though with some impropriety of expres- 
sion, conveys the very same idea in these words: ‘‘ We, through 
the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith ;” (c) 
because, having embraced the testimony of the gospel concern- 
ing his gratuitous love, we wait till God openly manifests what 
is now concealed under hope. Now, it is easy to see the ab- 
surdity of Peter Lombard, in laying a twofold foundation of hope ; 
the grace of God, and the merit of works. Hope can have no 
other object than faith ; and the only object of faith, we have | 
very clearly stated to be the mercy of God; to which both its 
eyes, if I may be allowed the expression, ought to be directed. 
But it may be proper to hear what kind of a reason he ad- 
vances. If, says he, you venture to hope for any thing with- 
out merits, it must not be called hope, but presumption. Who 
is there that will not justly detest such teachers, who pro- 
nounce a confidence in the veracity of God to be temerity and 
presumption? For whereas it is the will of the Lord that we 
should expect every thing from his goodness, they assert that 
it is presumption to depend and rely upon it. Such a master is 


(w) Isaiah viii. 17. (y) 1 Pet. i. 5. (b) Heb. x. 36. 
(w) 2 Pet. iii. 4. (z) 1 Pet. i. 21. (c) Gal. v. 5. 
(z) Psalm xc. 4. 2 Pet. ii. 8. (a) Phil. i. 20. 


5384 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1m, 


worthy of such disciples as he has found in the schools of 
wranglers! But, as for us, since we see that sinners are en 
joined by the oracles of God to entertain a hope of salvation, — 
let us joyfully presume so far on his veracity as to reject all 
confidence in our own works, to depend solely on his mercy, 
and venture to cherish a hope of happiness. He who said. 
‘¢ According to your faith be it unto you,” (d) will not de- 
ceive us. 


CHAPTER IIL 


ON REPENTANCE. 


* 
2 
% 


THovucu we have already shown, in some respect, how faith 
possesses Christ, and how by means of faith we enjoy his bene- 
fits, yet the subject would still be involved in obscurity, unless 
we were to add a description of the effects which we experi- 
ence. ‘The substance of the gospel is, not without reason, said 
to be comprised in ‘repentance and remission of sins.” ‘There- 
fore, if these two points be omitted, every controversy concern- 
ing faith will be jejune and incomplete, and consequently of 
little use. Now, since both are conferred on us by Christ, and 
we obtain both by faith, — that is, newness of life and gratuitous 
reconciliation, —the regular method of instruction requires me, 
in this place, to enter on the discussion of both. But our im- 
mediate transition will be from faith to repentance ; because, 
when this point is well understood, it will better appear how 
man is justified by faith alone, and mere pardon, and yet that 
real sanctity of life (so to speak) is not separated from the gra- 
tuitous imputation of righteousness, Now, it ought not to be 
doubted that repentance not only immediately follows faith, but 
is produced by it. For since pardon, or remission, is offered by 
the preaching of the gospel, in order that the sinner, liberated 
from the tyranny of Satan, from the yoke of sin, and the mise- 
rable servitude of his vices, may remove into the kingdom of 
God, — no one can embrace the grace of the gospel, but he must 
depart from the errors of his former life, enter into the right 
way, and devote all his attention to the exercise of repentance. 
Those who imagine that repentance rather precedes faith, than 
is produced by it, as fruit by a tree, have never been acquainted 
with its power, and are induced to adopt that sentiment by a 
very insufficient argument. 


(d) Matt. ix. 29. 


CHAP. u1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 535 


Il. They argue that Jesus Christ and John the Baptist, in 
their preaching, first exhort the people to repentance; and 
afterwards add, that ‘the kingdom of heaven is at hand ; ” (e) 
that thus the apostles were commanded to preach, and that this 
(according to the account of Luke) (f) was the method fol- 
lowed by Paul. But they superstitiously attend to the con- 
nection of the syllables, and disregard the sense and coherence 
of the words. For when Christ and John preach in this man- 
ner, ‘‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” (g) do 
they not derive an argument for repentance from grace itself, 
and the promise of salvation? ‘I'he meaning of their language, 
therefore, is just as though they had said, Since the kingdom 
of heaven is at hand, therefore repent. For Matthew, having 
related that John preached in this manner, informs us, that in 
him was accomplished the prediction of Isaiah concerning “ the 
voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of 
the Lord, make his paths straight.” But, in the prophet, that 
voice is commanded to begin with consolation and glad ti- 
dings. (h) Yet, when we speak of faith as the origin of re- 
pentance, we dream not of any space of time which it employs 
in producing it; but we intend to signify, that a man cannot 
truly devote himself to repentance, unless he knows himself to 
be of God. Now, no man is truly persuaded that he is of God, 
except he has previously received his grace. But these things 
will be more clearly discussed as we proceed. ‘This circum- 
stance, perhaps, has deceived them — that many are overcome or 
led to obedience by terrors of conscience, before they have im- 
bibed a knowledge of grace, or have even tasted it. And this 
is the initial fear, which some number among the graces, be- 
cause they perceive it to be nearly connected with true and 
righteous obedience. But we are not inquiring, at present, in 
how many ways Christ dtaws us to himself, or prepares us for 
the practice of piety: only I assert, that no rectitude can be 
found but where that Spirit reigns, whom he has received in 
order to communicate him to his members. In the next place, 
according to this passage in the Psalms, ‘There is forgiveness 
with thee, that thou mayest be feared,” (¢) no man will ever 
reverence God, but he who confides in his being propitious to 
him: no man will cheerfully devote himself to the observance 
of his law, but he who is persuaded that his services are pleas- 
ing to him : and this indulgence in pardoning us, and bearing 
with our faults, is an evidence of his paternal favour. The 
same also appears from this exhortation of Hosea, ‘‘ Come, and 

et us return unto the Lord; for he hath torn, and he will heal 


() Matt. iii. 2; iv. 17. f) Acts xx. 21. (g) Matt. iii. 2,3. 
(h) Isaiah xl. 1, 3. oe (z) Psalm cxxx. 4. 


536 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK 111, 


us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up ; ” (&) because the 
hope of pardon is added as a stimulus, to prevent them from 
being stupefied in their sins. But there is not.the least appear- 
ance of reason in the notion of those who, im order to begin 
with repentance, prescribe to their young converts certain days, 
during which they must exercise themselves in repentance ; 
atter the expiration of which, they admit them to the commu- 
nion of evangelical grace. I speak of many of the. Anabaptists, 
especially of those who wonderfully delight in being account- 
ed spiritual; and their companions, the Jesuits, and other such 
worthless men. Such are the effects produced by that spirit of 
fanaticism, that it terminates repentance within the hmits of a 
few short days, which a Christian ought to extend throughout 
his whole life. 

IIf. But concerning repentance, some learned men, im times 
very remote from the present, desiring to express: themselves 
with simplicity and sincerity according to the rule of the Serip- 
ture, have said that it consists of two parts — mortification and 
vivification. Mortification they explain to be the sorrow of the 
mind, and the terror experienced from a knowledge of sim and 
a sense of the Divine judgments. For when any one has been 
brought to a true knowledge of sin, he then begins truly to 
hate and abhor it ; then he is heartily displeased with himself, 
confesses himself to be miserable and Jost, and: wishes that he 
were another man. Moreover, when he is affected with some 
sense of the Divine judgment, (for the one immediately follows 
the other, ) then, indeed, he is stricken with consternation, he 
trembles with humility and dejection, he feels a despondency 
of mind, he falls into despair. ‘This is the first part of repent- 
ance, which they have generally styled contrition. Vivifica- 
tion they explain to be the consolation which is produced by 
faith; when a man, after having been humbled with a con- 
sciousness of sin, and stricken with the fear of God, afterwards 
contemplates the goodness of God, and the merey, grace, and 
salvation bestowed through Christ, rises from his depression,. 
feels himself re-invigorated, recovers his courage, and as it were 
returns from death to life. These terms, provided they be 
rightly understood, are sufficiently adapted to express the nature 
of repentance; but when they explain vivification of that joy 
which the mind experiences after its perturbations and fears are 
allayed, I cannot coincide with them; since it should, rather 
signify an ardent desire and endeavour to live a holy and pious 
life, as though it were said, that a man dies to himself, that he 
may begin to live to God. 

IV. Others, perceiving this word to have various acceptations 


(k) Hos. vi. 1. 


CHAP. UI] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 537 


in Scripture, have laid down two kinds of repentance ; and, to 
distinguish them by some character, have called one Legal; in 
which the sinner, wounded by the envenomed dart of sin, and 
harassed by the fear of Divine wrath, is involved in deep dis- 
tress, without the power of extricating himself: the other they 
style Evangelical; in which the sinner is grievously afflicted 
in himself, but rises above his distress, and embraces Christ as 
the medicine for his wound, the consolation of his terrors, and 
his refuge from all misery. Of legal repentance, they consider 
Cain, Saul, and Judas, as examples; (/) the scriptural account 
of whose repentance gives us to understand, that from a know- 
ledge of the greatness of their sins they dreaded the Divine 
wrath, but that considering God ouly as an avenger and a 
judge, they perished under that. apprehension. ‘Their repent- 
ance, therefore, was only, as it were, the antechamber of hell, 
which having already entered in this life, they began to suffer 
punishment from the manifestation of the wrath of the Divine 
Majesty. Evangelical repentance we discover in all who have 
been distressed by a sense of sin in themselves, but have been 
raised from their depression, and reinvigorated by a confidence 
im the Divine mercy, and converted to the Lord. .Hezekiah 
was terrified when he received the message of death ; (a) but 
he wept and prayed, and, contemplating the goodness of God, 
recovered his former confidence. ‘The Ninevites were con- 
founded by the terrible denunciation of destruction ; (2) but 
they covered themselves with sackcloth and ashes, and prayed, 
in hope that the Lord might be appeased, and the fury of his 
wrath averted. David confessed that he had committed a 
great sin in numbering the people; but added, ‘‘O Lord, take 
away the iniquity of thy servant.” (0) He acknowledged his 
crime of adultery at the rebuke of Nathan, and prostrated him- 
self before the Lord; but at the same time cherished an ex- 
pectation of pardon.(p) Such was the repentance of those 
‘who felt compunction of heart at the preaching of Peter, but, 
confiding in the goodness of God, exclaimed, ‘‘Men and bre- 
thren, what shall we do?’’(q) Such also was that of Peter him- 
self, who wept bitterly, but never lost his hope. 

VY. Though all these. observations are true, yet the term 
repentance, as far as 1 can ascertain from the Scriptures, must 
have a different aeceptation. For to include faith 1 repent- 
ance, is repugnant to what Paul says in the Acts — that he tes- 
tified “‘both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance 
toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ ;” (7) 
where he mentions faith and repentance, as two things totally 


(lt) Gen. iv.13. 1 Sam. xv. 30. Matt. xxvii. 3, 4. 
(m) 2 Kings xx. 2. Isaiah xxxviii. 2. n) Jonah ii. 5. 
(0) 2Sam. xxiv.10. (p)2Sam. xii. 13—16. (gq) Acts ii.37. (7) Acts xx. 2] 
VOL. I. U8 


538 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 111. 


distinct. What then? Can true repentance exist without 
faith? Not at all. But though they cannot be separated, 
yet they ought to be distinguished. As faith exists not 
without hope, and yet there is a difference between them, so 
repentance and faith, although they are perpetually and 
indissolubly united, require to be connected rather than con- 
founded. I am well aware, that under the term repentance is 
comprehended a complete conversion to God, of which faith is 
one of the principal branches; but in what sense, will best ap- 
pear from an explication of its nature and properties. ‘The He- 
brew word for repentance denotes conversion or return. The 
Greek word signifies change of mind and intention. Repentance 
itself corresponds very well with both etymologies, for it 
comprehends these two things —that, forsaking ourselves, we 
should turn to God, and laying aside our old mind, should as- 
sume a new one. Wherefore I conceive it may be justly 
defined to be “a true conversion of our life to God, proceeding 
Srom a sincere and serious fear of God, and consisting in the 
mortification of our flesh and of the old man, and in the vivifi- 
cation of the Spirit.” In this sense we must understand all 
the addresses; in which either the prophets in ancient days, or 
the apostles in a succeeding age, exhorted their contemporaries 
to repentance. For the point to which they endeavoured to 
bring them was this— that being confounded by their sins, and 
penetrated with a fear of the Divine judgment, they might 
prostrate themselves in humility before him against whom they 
had offended, and with true penitence return into his right 
way. ‘Therefore these expressions, ‘to repent” (s) and ‘to re- 
turn to the Lord,’ (t) are promiscuously used by them in the ~ 
same signification. Hence also the sacred history expresses 
repentance by seeking after and following God, when men 
who have disregarded him, and indulged their criminal propen- 
sities, begin to obey his word, and are ready to follow whither- 
soever he calls them. And John and Paul have spoken of © 
‘bringing forth fruits meet for repentance,” to signify a life 
which, in every action, will discover and testify such a re- 
pentance. 

VI. But before we proceed any further, it will be useful to 
amplify and explain the definition we have given; in which 
there are three points to be particularly considered. In the 
first place, when we call repentance ‘a conversion of the life 
to God,’ we require a transformation, not only in the external 
actions, but in the soul itself; which, after having put off its 
old nature, should produce the fruits of actions corresponding 
to its renovation. ‘The prophet, intending to express this idea, 


(s) Matt. iii. 2. _(t) 1 Sam. vii. 3. 


CHAP. I11.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 539 


commands those whom he calls to repentance, to make them- 
selves a new heart. («w) Wherefore Moses, when about to show 
how the Israelites might repent and be rightly converted to the 
Lord, frequently teaches them that it must be done with al 
their heart, and with all their soul; and by speaking. of the 
circumcision of the heart, he enters into the inmost affections 
of the mind. 'This mode of expression we find often repeated 
by the prophets; but there is no passage from which we may 
obtain clearer ideas of the true nature of repentance, than from 
the language of God in the fourth chapter of Jeremiah: ‘“ If 
thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto me. 
Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. Cir- 
cumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins 
of your heart.” (w) Observe how he denounces that they shall 
labour in vain in the pursuit of righteousness, unless impiety 
be previously eradicated from the bottom of their hearts. And 
in order to make a deeper impression upon them, he apprizes 
them that they have to do with God, with whom subterfuges 
are of no avail, because he abhors all duplicity of heart. For 
this reason, Isaiah ridicules the preposterous endeavours of hy- 
pocrites, who did indeed strenuously attempt an external re- 
pentance by the observance of ceremonies, but at the same 
time were not concerned “to loose the bands of wickedness,” («) 
with which they oppressed the poor. In that passage he also 
beautifully shows, in what duties unfeigned repentance pro- 
perly consists. 

VII. In the second place, we represented repentance as 
proceeding from a serious fear of God. For before the 
mind of a sinner can be inclined to repentance, it must be 
excited by a knowledge of the Divine judgment. But when 
this thought has once been deeply impressed, that God will 
one day ascend his tribunal to exact an account of all words 
and actions, it will not permit the miserable man to take 
any interval of rest, or to enjoy even a momentary respite, 
but perpetually stimulates him to adopt a new course of life, 
that he may be able to appear with security at that judgment. 
Wherefore the Scripture, when it exhorts to repentance, fre- 
quently introduces a mention of the judgment; as in Jeremiah ; 
“Lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can 
quench it, because of the evil of your doings: ”’ (y) in the address 
of Paul to the Athenians; “‘ The times of this, ignorance God 
winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to 
repent ; because he hath appointed a day in which he wili 
judge the world in righteousness:”’(z) and in many other 


(u) Ezekiel xvii. 31. (w) Jer. iv. 1, 3, 4. (x) Isaiah lviii. 6. 
(y) Jer. iv. 4. (z) "Acts xvii. 30, 31 


540 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book Ur 


places. Sometimes, by the punishments already inflicted, 
it declares that God is a judge; in order that sinners may 
consider with. themselves that worse calamities await them, 
unless they speedily repent. We have an example of this in 
the twenty-ninth chapter of Deuteronomy. But since conver- 
sion commences with a dread and hatred of sin, therefore the 
apostle makes godly sorrow the cause of repentance.(a) He 
calls it godly sorrow when we not only dread punishment, 
but hate and abhor sin itself, from a knowledge that it is dis- 
pleasing to God. Nor ought this to be thought strange ; for, 
unless we felt sharp compunction, our carnal sluggishness could 
never be corrected, and even these distresses of mind would 
not be sufficient to arouse it from its stupidity and indolence, 
if God, by the infliction of his chastisements, did not make a 
deeper impression. Beside this, there is a rebellious obstinacy,. 
which requires: violent blows, as it were, to overcome it. ‘The 
severity, therefore, which God uses in his threatenings, is ex- 
torted from him by the depravity of our minds; since it would 
be in vain for him to address kind and alluring invitations to 
those who are asleep. I forbear to recite the testimonies with 
which the Scripture abounds. The fear of God is called the 
beginning of repentance also for another reason; because 
though a man’s life were perfect in every virtue, if it be 
not devoted to the worship of God, it may indeed be com- 
mended by the world, but in heaven it will be only an 
abomination; since the principal branch of righteousness coii- 
sists in rendering to God the honour due to him, of which 
he is impiously defrauded, when it is not our end and aim 
to submit ourselves to his government. 

VIII. It remains for us, in the third place, to explain 
our position, that repentance consists of two parts — the morti- 
fication of the flesh and the vivification of the spirit. This 
is clearly expressed by the prophets, although in a simple 
and homely manner, according to the capacity of a carnal 
people, when they say, “‘ Depart from evil, and do good.” (6) 
Again: ‘Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of 
your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn 
to do well; seek judgment; relieve the oppressed,” &c. (c) 
For when they call men from the paths of wickedness, 
they require the total destruction of the flesh, which is full 
of wickedness and perverseness. It is a thing truly difficult 
and arduous to put off ourselves, and to depart from the native 
bias of our minds. Nor must the flesh be considered as 
entirely dead, unless all that we have of ourselves be de- 
stroyed. But since the universal disposition of the flesh 


(a) 2 Cor. vii. 10. (b) Psalm xxxiv. 14. (c) Isaiah i. 16, 17. 


CHAP. 1. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 544 


is settled “enmity against God,” (d) the first step to an obedi- 
ence of the law is this renunciation of our own nature. 
They afterwards designate the renovation by its fruits — right- 
eousness, judgment, and mercy. For a punctual performance 
of these external duties would not be sufficient, unless the 
mind and heart had previously acquired a disposition of 
righteousness, judgment, and mercy. ‘This takes place when 
the Spirit of God has tinctured our souls with his holiness, 
and given them such new thoughts and affections, that they 
may be justly considered as new, [or altogether different from 
what they were before.| And certainly, as we have a natural 
aversion to God, we shall never aim at that which is right, 
Without a previous renunciation of ourselves. Therefore we 
are so frequently commanded to put off the old man, to 
renounce the world and the flesh, to forsake our lusts, and 
to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. Besides, the 
very word mortification reminds us how difficult it is to 
forget our former nature; for it implies that we cannot be 
formed to the fear of God, and learn the rudiments of piety, 
without being violently slain and annihilated by the sword 
of the Spirit. As though God had pronounced that, in order 
so our being numbered among his children, there is a necessity 
for the destruction of our common nature. 

IX. Both these branches of repentance are effects ot our 
participation of Christ. For if we truly partake of his death, 
our old man is crucified by its power, and the body of sin ex- 
pires, so that the corruption of our former nature loses all its 
vigour.(e) If we are partakers of his resurrection, we are 
raised by it to anewness of life, which corresponds with the 
righteousness of God. In one word I apprehend repentance to 
be regeneration, the end of which is the restoration of the Di- 
vine image within us; which was defaced, and almost oblite- 
rated, by the transgression of Adam. ‘Thus the apostle teaches 
us, when he says, ‘‘ But we all, with open face beholding as in 
a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image 
from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (/f) 
Again: “ Be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind; and put on 
the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and 
true holiness.” (g) Again, in another place: ‘And ye have 
put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the 
image of him that created him.” (h) Wherefore, in this re- 
generation, we are restored by the grace of Christ to the right- 
eousness of God, from which we fell im Adam; in which man- 
ner the Lord is pleased completely to restore all those whom 


(d) Rom. viii. 7. (e) Rom. vi 5, 6. (f) 2 Cor. aii. 18. 
(g) Eph iv ‘23, 24 (hk) Col. tii. 10. 


p42 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 111 


he adopts to the inheritance of life. And this restoration is 
not accomplished in a single moment, or day, or year; but by 
continual, and sometimes even tardy advances, the Lord destroys 
‘he carnal corruptions of his chosen, purifies them from all pollu- 
tion, and consecrates them as temples to himself; renewing all 
their senses to real purity, that they may employ their whole 
life in the exercise of repentance, and know that this warfare 
will be terminated only by death. And so much the greater 
is the wickedness of that impure and quarrelsome apostate Sta- 
phylus, who idly pretends that I confound the state of the 
present life with the glory of heaven, when I explain the 
image of God, according to Paul, to be righteousness and true 
holiness. As if, indeed, when any thing is to be defined, we 
are not to inquire after the completeness and perfection of it. 
It is not denied that there is room for further advances.; but I 
assert, that as far as any man approaches to a resemblance of 
God, so far the image of God is displayed in him. ‘That be- 
lievers may attain to this, God assigns them the race of re- 
pentance to run during their whole life. 

X. Thus, therefore, the children of God are liberated by 
regeneration from the servitude of sin; not that they have 
already obtained the full possession of liberty, and experience 
no more trouble from the flesh, but there remains in them a 
perpetual cause of contention to exercise them; and not only 
to exercise them, but also to make them better acquainted with 
their own infirmity. And on this subject all sound writers are 
agreed —that there still remains in a regenerate man a foun- 
tain of evil, continually producing irregular desires, which 
allure and stimulate him to the commission of sin. 'They ac- 
knowledge, also, that saints are still so afflicted with the disease 
of concupiscence, that they cannot prevent their being fre- 
quently stimulated and incited either to lust, or to avarice, or 
to ambition, or to other vices. There is no need of a laborious 
investigation, to learn what were the sentiments of the fathers 
on this subject: it will be sufficient to consult Augustine alone, 
who with great diligence and fidelity has collected the opin- 
ions of them all. From him, then, the reader may receive all 
the certainty he can desire concerning the sense of antiquity. 
Between him and us, this difference may be discovered — that 
while he concedes that believers, as long as they inhabit a 
mortal body, are so tound by concupiscence that they cannot 
but feel irregular desires, yet he ventures not to call this disease 
by the name of szn, Lut, content with designating it by the ap- 
pellation of infirmity, teaches that it only becomes sin in cases 
where either action or consent is added to the conception or 
apprehension of the mind, that is, where the will yields to the 
first impulse of appetite. But we, on the contrary, deem it to 


CHAP. III. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 543 


be sin, whenever a man feels any evil desires contrary to the 
Divine law ; and we also assert the depravity itself to be sin, 
which produces these desires in our minds. We maintain, 
therefore, that sin always exists in the saints, till they are di- 
vested of the mortal body ; because their flesh is the residence 
of that depravity of concupiscence, which is repugnant to all 
rectitude. Nevertheless, he has not always refrained from 
using the word sim in this sense; as when he says, “ Paul 
gives the appellation of sin to this, from which all sins pro- 
ceed, that is, to carnal concupiscence. ‘This, as it respects the 
saints, loses its kingdom on earth, and has no existence in 
heaven.” In these words he acknowledges that believers are 
guilty of sin, inasmuch as they are the subjects of carnal con- 
cupiscence. 

XI. But when God is said “to cleanse his church” (7) from 
all sin, to promise the grace of deliverance in baptism, and to 
fulfil it in his elect, —we refer these phrases rather to the guilt 
of sin, than to the existence of sin. In the regeneration of 
his children, God does indeed destroy the kingdom of sin in 
them, (for the Spirit supplies them with strength, which renders 
them victorious in the conflict ;) but though it ceases to reign, it 
continues to dwell in them. Wherefore we say, that ‘ the old 
man is crucified,’ (4) that the law of sin is abolished in the 
children of God, yet so that some relics remain; not to pre- 
dominate over them, but to humble them with a consciousness 
of their infirmity. We grant, indeed, that they are not impu- 
ted, any more than if they did not exist; but we likewise con- 
tend that it is owing to the mercy of God that the saints are 
delivered from this guilt, who would otherwise be justly ac- 
counted sinners and guilty before him. Nor will it be difficult 
for us to confirm this opinion, since there are clear testimonies 
of Scripture to support it. What can we desire more explicit 
than the declaration of Paul to the Romans?(/) In the first 
place, that he there speaks in the character of a regenerate 
man, we have already shown; and Augustine has evinced the 
same by the strongest arguments. I say nothing of his using 
the words evil and sin. However those who wish to oppose 
us may cavil at those words, yet who can deny that a resist- 
ance to the Divine law is evil? who can deny that an opposition 
to righteousness is sin? finally, who will not admit that there 
is guilt wherever there is spiritual misery? But all these things 
are affirmed by Paul respecting this disease. Besides, we have 
a certain demonstration from the law, by which this whole 
question may be briefly decided. For we are commanded to 
love God with all our heart, with all our mind, and with all our 


(z) Eph. v. 26. (kK) Rom. vi. 6. (1) Rom. vii. 


544 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 40. 


strength. Since all the powers of our soul ought to be thus 
occupied by the love of God, it is evident that the precept is 
not fulfilled by those who receive into their hearts the least de- 
sire, or admit into their minds any thought, which may draw 
them aside from the love of God into vanity. What then? Are 
not these properties of the soul, —to be affected with sudden 
emotions, to apprehend in the sensory, and to form conceptions 
in the mind? When these, therefore, open.a way for the ad- 
mission of vain and corrupt thoughts, do they not show that 
they are so far destitute of the love of God? Whoever, there- 
fore, refuses to acknowledge that all the inordinate desires of 
the flesh are sins, and that that malady of concupiscence, which 
they call an incentive to sin, is the source of sin, must necessa- 
rily deny the transgression of the law to be sin. 

wit: “If \it ;be thought absurd, that all the natural appetites 
of man should be thus universally condemned, since they were 
implanted by God, the author of nature, — we reply, that we 
by no means cohdemn those desires, which God implanted so 
deeply in the nature of man at his first creation that they can- 
not be eradicated from it without destroying humanity itself, 
but only those insolent and lawless appetites which resist the 
commands of God. But now, since, through the depravity of 
nature, all its powers are so vitiated and corrupted, that disorder 
and intemperance are visible in all our actions; because the ap- 
petites are inseparable from such excesses, therefore we maintain 
that they are corrupt. Or, if it be wished to have the substance 
of our opinion in fewer words, we say, that all the desires of 
men are evil; and we consider them to be sinful, not as they are 
natural, but because they are inordinate; and we affirm they 
are inordinate, because nothing pure or immaculate can proceed 
from a corrupted and polluted nature. Nor does Augustine de- 
viate from this doctrine so much as he appears to do. When 
he is too much afraid of the odium with which the Pelagians 
endeavoured to overwhelm him, he sometimes refrains from 
using the word sin: yet when he says, “that the law of sin 
remains in the saints, and that only the guilt is abolished,” he 
sufficiently indicates that he is not averse to our opinion. 

XIII. We will adduce some other passages, from which his 
sentiments will more fully appear. In his second book against 
Julian: “This law of sin is both abolished in the spiritual re- 
generation, and continues in the mortal flesh; abolished, since 
the guilt is removed in the sacrament, by which believers are 
regenerated ; but continues, because it produces those desires 
against which also believers contend.” Again: “ Therefore the 
law of sin, which was in the members even of so great an apostle, 
is abolished in baptism, but not finally destroyed.” Again: 
“The law of sin, the remaining guilt of which is removed in 


CHAP. 111.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 545 


baptism, Ambrose has called iniquity ; because it is iniquitous 
for the flesh to lust against the spirit.”” Again: ‘ Sin is dead in 
that guilt in which it held us; and, although dead, it will rebel 
till it is cured by the perfection of burial.” In the fifth book, 
he is still more explicit: ‘‘ As blindness of heart is both a sin, 
which consists in a man’s not believing in God; and a punish- 
ment for sin, by which a proud heart is deservedly punished ; 
and also a cause of sin, when any is committed through the error 
of a blind heart ; so the concupiscence of the flesh, against which 
the good spirit lusteth, is both a sin, because it is a disobedience 
against the government of the mind; and a punishment for sin, 
because it is inflicted for the demerits of the disobedient ; and 
alsa a cause of sin, consenting by defection, or produced from con- 
tagion.” Here he styles it sin, without any ambiguity ; because, 
having overthrown error and confirmed the truth, he is not so 
much afraid of calumnies ; as also in the forty-first homily on 
John, where he undoubtedly speaks the real sentiments of his 
mind : “ Ifin the flesh you serve the law of sin, do what the apos- 
tle himself says — ‘ Let not sin reign in your mortal body, that ye 
should obey it in the lusts thereof.’ (#) He says not, let it not 
exist; but, let it not reign. Aslong as you live, sin must neces- 
sarily exist in your members; let it at least be divested of its 
kingdom, so that its commands may not be fulfilled.” ‘Those 
who contend that concupiscence is not sin, commonly object 
this passage of James — “ When lust hath conceived, it bringeth 
forth sin.”(m) But this objection is easily repelled; for, unless 
we understand him there to speak of evil works exclusively, or 
of actual sins, even an evil volition cannot be accounted sin. 
But from his calling flagitious and criminal actions the offspring 
of lust, and attributing to them the name of sin, it does not 
necessarily follow that concupiscence is not an evil thing, and 
deserving of condemnation in the sight of God. 

XIV. Some Anabaptists, in the present age, imagine I know 
not what frantic intemperance, instead of spiritual regenera- 
tion —that the children of God, being restored to a state of 
innocence, are no longer obliged to be solicitous to restrain the 
licentiousness of the flesh, but that they ought to follow.the 
leadings of the Spirit, under whose direction it is impossible 
ever toerr. It would be incredible that the mind of man should 
fall into such madness, did they not publicly and haughtily dis- 
seminate this opinion. It is indeed truly prodigious; but it is 
just and reasonable, that those who have persuaded themselves 
to pervert the truth of God into a falsehood, should suffer such 
punishment for their sacrilegious presumption. Must all dis 
- tinction, then, of honour and turpitude, justice and injustice, good 


(m) Rom. vi. 12. (n) James 1. 15. 
VOL. I. 69 


546 INSTITUTES OF THE 7 [Book 11 


and evil, virtue and vice, be annihilated? 'This difference, they 
say, proceeds from the malediction of the old Adam, from 
which we are delivered by Christ. Then there will be no dif- 
ference now between chastity and fornication, sincerity and 
knavery, truth and falsehood, equity and rapine. Dismiss (they 
say )all vain fear; the Spirit will command you nothing that is 
evil, provided you securely and intrepidly resign yourself to his 
direction. Who is not astonished at these monstrous notions ? 
Yet this is a popular philosophy among those, who, blinded by the 
violence of their appetites, have discarded common sense. But 
what kind of a Christ, and what kind of a Spirit, have they fa- 
bricated for us? For we acknowledge one Christ and his Spirit 
alone; whom the prophets have celebrated, whom the gospel 
proclaims as revealed, but of whom it gives us no such account 
as this. That Spirit is not the patron of murder, fornication, 
drunkenness, pride, contention, avarice, or fraud; but the-author 
of love, chastity, sobriety, modesty, peace, moderation, and 
truth. He is not a Spirit of fanaticism, rushing precipitately, 
without any consideration, through right and wrong; but is full 
of wisdom and understanding, rightly to discern between jus- 
tice and injustice. He never instigates to dissolute and unre- 
strained licentiousness; but, discriminating between what is 
lawful and what is unlawful, inculcates temperance and mo- 
deration. But why should we spend any more labour in refu- 
ting this monstrous frenzy? To Christians the Spirit of the 
Lord is not a turbulent phantom, which they have either 
spawned themselves in a dream, or received from the. invention 
of others; but they religiously seek the knowledge of him in 
the Scriptures, where these two things are delivered concerning 
him — first, that he is given to us in order to our sanctification, 
to purify us from all our pollutions, and lead us to: obey the 
Divine righteousness; which obedience cannot exist without 
the subjugation of the appetites, to which these men: would 
allow an unlimited license: in the next place, that we are 
so purified by his sanctification, that we are nevertheless still 
encompassed with numerous vices and great infirmity, as long 
as we are burdened with the body. Wherefcre, being at a 
great distance from perfection, it behoves us to make continual 
advances ; and being entangled in vices, we have need to strive 
against them every day. Hence, also, it follows that we ought — 
to shake off all slothful security, and exert the most vigilant 
attention, lest, without caution, we should be surprised and 
overcome by the snares of our flesh; unless we are well as- 
sured that we have made a greater progress than the apostle; 
who, nevertheless, was buffeted by the ‘messenger of Satan,” (0) 


(0) 2 Cor. xii. 7, 9. 


cHAP. 111.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 547 


that his strength might be “‘made perfect in weakness ;’’ (p) 
and who. faithfully represented the conflict between the flesh 
and the Spirit, which he experienced in his own person. 

XV. When the apostle, in a description of repentance, enu- 
merates seven things, which are either causes producing it, or 
effects proceeding from it, or members and parts of it, he does 
it fora very good reason. ‘These things are, carefulness, ex- 
cuse, indignation, fear, vehement desire, zeal, revenge. (q) Nor 
ought it to be thought strange that I venture not to determine 
whether they should be considered as causes or effects; for 
arguments may be adduced in support of both. They may 
also be styled affections connected with repentance ; but as we 
may discover the meaning of Paul without discussing these 
questions, we shall be content with a simple exposition of them. 
He says, then, that godly sorrow produces solicitude. For a 
person who is affected with a serious sense of displeasure be- 
cause he has sinned against his God, is at the same time sti- 
mulated to diligence and attention, that he may completely 
extricate himself from the snares of the devil, and be more 
cautious of his insidious attacks, that he may not in future 
disobey the government of the Spirit, or be overcome with a 
careless security. ‘The next thing is self-ercuse, which in this 
place signifies not a defence by which a sinner tries to escape 
the judgment of God, either by denying his transgressions or 
_ extenuating his guilt, but a kind of excuse, consisting rather 
in deprecation of punishment than in confidence of his cause. 
Just as children, who are not absolutely lost to all sense of duty, 
while they acknowledge and confess their. faults, at the same 
time deprecate punishment, and, in order to succeed, testify by 
every possible method that they have not cast off that reverence 
which is due to their parents; in a word, they excuse them- 
selves in such a manner, not to prove themselves righteous and 
innocent, but only to obtain pardon. This is followed by tn- 
dignation, in which the sinner laments within himself, expos- 
tulates with himself, and is angry with himself, while he re- 
collects his perverseness and ingratitude to God. ‘The word 
fear denotes that trepidation with which our minds are pe- 
netrated, whenever we reflect upon our demerits, and on the 
terrible severity of the Divine wrath against sinners. For we 
cannot but be agitated with an amazing inquietude, which 
teaches us humility, and renders us more cautious for the 
future. Now, if the solicitude before mentioned be the offspring 
of fear, we see the connection and coherence between them. 
He appears to me to have used the word desire to denote 
diligence in duty and alacrity of obedience, to. which the 


(p) Rom. vii. (q) 2 Cor. vu. 11. 


548 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox im 


knowledge of our faults ought to be a most powerful stimulus. 
Similar to this is the meaning of zeal, which he immediately 
subjoins ; for it signifies the ardour with which we are in- 
flamed, when we are roused with such thoughts as these: 
‘‘What have I done? Whither had I precipitated myself, if I 
had not been succoured by the mercy of God?” ‘The last 
thing 1s revenge, or punishment ; for the greater our severity is 
towards ourselves, and the stricter inquisition we make con- 
cerning our sins, so much the stronger hope ought we to 
entertain that God will be propitious and merciful. And, in- 
deed, it is impossible but that a soul, impressed with a dread of 
the Divine judgment, must inflict some punishment on itself. 
Truly pious persons experience what punishments are con- 
tained in shame, confusion, lamentation, displeasure with them- 
selves, and the other affections which arise from a serious 
acknowledgment of their transgressions. But let us remember 
that some hmit must be observed, that we may not be over- 
whelmed in sorrow; for to nothing are terrified consciences 
more liable than to fall into despair. And with this artifice, 
also, whomsoever Satan perceives to be dejected by a fear of 
God, he plunges them further and further into the deep gulf of 
sorrow, that they may never arise again. 'That fear, indeed, 
cannot be excessive, which terminates in humility, and departs 
not from the hope of pardon. Nevertheless, the sinner should 
always be on his guard, according to the direction of the apos-- 
tle, (7) lest while he excites his heart to be. displeased with ~ 
himself, he be wearied with excessive dread, and faint in his 
mind ; for this would drive us away from God, who calls us to 
himself by repentance. On this subject, Bernard also gives a 
very useful admonition: ‘‘ Sorrow for sin is necessary, if it be 
not perpetual. I advise you sometimes fo quit the anxious 
and painful recollection of your own ways, and to arise to an 
agreeable and serene remembrance of the Divine blessings. 
Let us mingle honey with wormwood, that its salutary bitter- 
hess may restore our health, when it shall be drunk tempered 
with a mixture of sweetness; and if you reflect on your own 
meanness, reflect also on the goodness of the Lord.” 

XVI. Now, it may also be understood what are the fruits 
of repentance. ‘They are, the duties of piety towards God, 
and of charity towards men, with sanctity and purity in our 
whole life. In a word, the more diligently any one examines 
his life by the rule of the Divine law, so much the more certain 
evidences he discovers of his repentance. The Spirit, there- 
fore, in frequently exhorting us to repentance, calls our atten- 
tion, sometimes to all the precepts of the law, sometimes to the 


(r) Heb. xii. 3. 


CHAP. 111] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 549 


duties of the second table; though in other places, after having 
condemned impurity in the very fountain of *the heart, he pro- 
ceeds to those external testimonies which evidence a sincere 
repentance ; a view of which I will soon exhibit to the reader, 
in a description of the Christian life. I shall not collect testi- 
monies from the prophets, in which they partly ridicule the 
follies of those who attempt to appease God by ceremonies, 
and demonstrate them to be mere mockeries; and partly in- 
culeate, that external integrity of life is not the principal branch 
of repentance, because God looks at the heart. He that is 
but ordinarily acquainted with the Scripture, will discover of 
himself, without being informed by any one, that in our con- 
cerns with God, we advance not a single step unless we begin 
with the internal affection of the heart. And this passage of 
Joel will afford us no small assistance’ in the interpretation of 
others: ‘‘ Rend your heart, and not your garments.” (s) Both 
these ideas are briefly expressed in these words of James — 
“Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye 
double minded ;”’ (¢) where there is indeed an addition made. 
to the first clause; but the fountain, or original, is next dis- 
covered, showing the necessity of cleansing the secret pollu- 
tion, that an altar may be erected to God even in the heart. 
There are likewise some external exercises which we use, in 
private, as remedies either to humble ourselves, or to subdue 
our carnality ; and in public, to testify our repentance. They 
proceed from the revenge mentioned by Paul; (w) for it is na- 
tural to an afflicted mind to continue in a squalid condition, 
groaning and weeping, to avoid every kind of splendour and 
pomp, and to forsake all pleasures. He who experiences the 
great evil of the rebellion of the flesh, seeks every remedy to 
restrain it. He who properly considers what a grievous thing 
it is to have offended the justice of God, can enjoy no repose 
till he has glorified God by his humility. Such exercises are 
frequently mentioned by the old writers, when they speak of 
the fruits of repentance. And though they by no means make 
repentance wholly to consist in them, yet the reader will 
pardon me if I deliver my opinion, that they appear to me to 
insist upon them more than they ought. And I hope every 
one, on a sober examination, will agree with me, that they 
have gone beyond all due bounds in two respects. For when 
they: so strongly urged and so extravagantly recommended that 
corporeal discipline, the consequence was indeed that the com- 
mon people adopted it with great ardour; but they also ob- 
scured that which ought to be esteemed of infinitely greater 
importance. Secondly, in the infliction of castigations, they 


(s) Joel ii. 13. (t) James iv. 8. (u) 2 Cor. vii. 11. 


550 INSTITUTES OF THE. [Book m1. 


used rather more rigour than was consistent with ecclesiastical 
gentleness. But -we shall have to treat of this in another place. 

XVII. But as some persons, when they find weeping, fast- 
ing, and ashes mentioned, not only in many other passages of 
Scripture, but particularly in Joel, (v) consider fasting and 
weeping as the principal part of repentance, their mistake re- 
quires to be rectified. What is there said of the conversion of 
the whole heart to the Lord, and of rending not the garments, 
but the heart, properly belongs to repentance; but weeping 
and fasting are not added as perpetual or necessary effects of it, 
but as circumstances belonging to a particular case. Having 
prophesied that a most grievous destruction was impending 
over the Jews, he persuades them to prevent the Divine wrath, 
not only by repentance, but also by exhibiting external de- 
monstrations of sorrow. For as it was customary, in ancient 
times, for an accused person to present himself in a suppliant 
posture, with a long beard, dishevelled hair, and mourning ap- 
parel, in order to conciliate the compassion of the judge, so it 
became those who stood as criminals before the tribunal of 
God, to deprecate his severity in a condition calculated to ex- 
cite commiseration. Though sackcloth and ashes were perhaps 
more suitable to those times, yet it is evident that the practice 
of weeping and fasting would be very seasonable among us, 
whenever the Lord appears to threaten us with any affliction 
or calamity. For when he causes danger to appear, he, as it 


were, denounces that he is prepared and armed for the exercise 


of vengeance. The prophet, therefore, was right in exhorting 
his countrymen to weeping and fasting; that is, to the sadness 
of persons under accusation, into whose offences he had just 
before said that an examination was instituted. Neither would 
the pastors of the church act improperly in the present age, if, 
when they perceived calamity impending over the heads of 
their people, they called them to immediate weeping and fast- 
ing ; provided they always insisted with the greatest fervour 
and diligence on the principal point, which is, that they must 
rend their hearts, and not their garments. It is certain, that 
fasting is not always the concomitant of repentance, but is ap- 
pointed for times of peculiar calamity ; wherefore Christ con- 
nects it with mourning, when he frees the apostles from any 
obligation to it, till they should be affected with grief at the 
loss of his presence. (w) I speak of solemn fasting. For. the 
life of the pious ought at all times to be regulated by frugality 
and sobriety, that through its whole progress it may appear to 
be a kind of perpetual fast. But as the whole of this subject 
must be discussed again, when we come to treat of Eeclesiasti- 
eal Discipline, I touch the more slightly upon it at present. 


(v) Joel 1. 12. (w) Matt. ix. 15. 


HAP. u1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 551 


XVII. I will again remark, however, that when the word 
repentance is transferred to this external profession, it is im- 
properly changed from the genuine signification which IL have 
stated. For this external profession is not so much a conver- 
sion to God, asa confession of sin, with a deprecation of punish- 
ment and euilt, Thus to “repent in sackcloth and ashes,” (2) 
is only a declaration of our displeasure against ourselves, when 
God is angry with us on account of our grievous offences. 
And this is a public species of confession, by which condemn- 
ing ourselves before angels and men, we prevent the judgment 
of God.* For Paul rebukes the sluggishness of those who in- 
dulge their sins, saying, “If we would judge ourselves, we 
should not be judged.” (y) It is not necessary, in all cases, 
publicly to make men witnesses of our repentance; but a 
private confession to God is a branch of true penitence which 
cannot be omitted. For nothing is more unreasonable than 
that God should pardon sins, in which we encourage ourselves, 
and which, lest he should bring them to light, we conceal 
under the garb of hypocrisy. And it is not only necessary to 
confess the sins which we commit from day to day; more 
grievous falls ought to lead us further, and to recall to our re- 
membrance those which appear to have been long buried in 
oblivion. We learn this from the example of David ; (z) for, 
being ashamed of a recent and flagitious crime, he examines 
himself back to the time of his conception, and acknowledges 
that even then he was corrupted and contaminated with carnal 
impurity ; and this not to extenuate his guilt, as many conceal 
themselves in a multitude, and endeavour to escape with im- 
punity by implicating others with themselves. Very different 
was the conduct of David, who ingenuously aggravated his 
suilt, by confessing that he was corrupted from his earliest in- 
fancy, and had never ceased to accumulate crimes upon crimes. 
In another place, also, he enters on such an examination of his 
past life, that he implores the Divine mercy to pardon the sins 
of his youth. (a) And certainly we shall never give proof that 
we have shaken off our lethargy, till, groaning under the bur- 
den, and bewailing our misery, we pray to God for relief. It 1s 
further to be remarked, that the repentance which we are com- 
manded constantly to practise, differs from that which arouses, 
as it were, from death those who have either fallen into some 
great enormity, or abandoned themselves to a course of sin with 
unrestrained license, or by any rebellion shaken off the Divine 
yoke. For when the Scripture exhorts to repentance, it fre- 
quently signifies a kind of transition and resurrection from 
death to life; and when it states that the people repented, it 


(z) Matt. xi. 21. ° (y) 1 Cor. xi. 31. (z) Psalin li. 5. (a) Psalm xxv. 7 


552 INSTITUTES OF THE . [Book IL 


means that they departed from idolatry and other gross enormi- 
ties ; in which sense Paul declares his grief for sinners, who 
‘have not repented of their uncleanness, and fornication, and 
lasciviousness.” (b) This difference should be carefully ob- 
served, lest, when we hear that few are called to repentance, 
we fall into a supine security, as though we had no more to do 
with the mortification of the flesh, from which the depraved 
appetites that perpetually disturb us, and the vices that often 
arise in us, will never permit us to relax. ‘The special repent- 
ance, therefore, which is only required of some whom the 
devil has seduced from the fear of God, and entangled in his 
fatal snares, supersedes not that ordinary repentance, which the 
corruption of nature obliges us to practise aiiiaa the whole 
course of our lives. 

XIX. Now, if it be true, as it certainly 1s, that the whole 
substance of the gospel 1s comprised in these two points, re- 
pentance and remission of sins, — do not we perceive that the 
Lord freely justifies his children, that he may also restore them 
to true righteousness by the sanctification of his Spirit? John. 
the ‘‘messenger sent before the face ” of Christ to ‘ prepare his 
way before him,” (c) preached, ‘‘ Repent ye, for the kingdom 
of heaven is at hand.’ (d) By calling men to repentance, he 
taught them to acknowledge themselves to be sinners, and 
every thing belonging to them to be condemned before God, 
that they might earnestly desire and pray for a mortification of 
the flesh, and new regeneration in the Spirit. By announcing 
the kingdom of God, he called them to exercise faith ; for by 
‘the kingdom of God,” the approach of which he proclaimed, 
he intended remission of sins, salvation, life, and in general all 
the benefits that we obtain in Christ. Wherefore, in the other 
evangelists, it is said, that “‘ John came, preaching the baptism 
of repentance for the remission of sins.” (e) What was in- 
tended by this, but that, oppressed and wearied with the bur- 
den of sins, men should turn themselves to the Lord, and 
entertain a hope of remission and salvation? Thus, also, 
Christ commenced his public ministrations. ‘‘ The kingdom 
of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” (f) 
First, he declares that the treasures of merey are opened in 
‘imself; then he requires repentance ; and lastly, a reliance on 
the Divine promises. ‘Therefore, when he would give a brief 
summary of the whole gospel, he said, that ‘‘it behoved him 
to suffer, and to rise from the dead ; and that repentance and 
remission of sins should be preached in his name.” (g) The 
apost'es also, after his resurrection, preached that he was exalted 


(b) 2 Cor. xii. 21. (d) Matt. iii. 2. (f) Mark i. 15. 
fc) Matt xi. 10. (e) Luke iii. 3. Mark i. 4. (g) Luke xxiv. 46, 47. 


CHAP. III. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 553 


by God, ‘‘to give repentance to Israel and remission of sins.” (i) 
Repentance is preached in the name of Christ, when men are 
informed, by the doctrine of the gospel, that all ‘their thoughts, 
their affections, and their pursuits, are corrupt and vicious ; and 
that therefore it is necessary for them to be born again, if they 
wish to enter the kingdom of God. Reiiissioen of sins 1s 
preached, when men are taught that Christ is made unto them 
“wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemp- 
tion;’’ (7) in whose name they are gratuitously accounted 
righteous and innocent in the sight of God. Both these bless- 
ings of grace, as we have already shown, are apprehended by 
faith ; yet since the goodness of God in the remission of sins is 
the peculiar object of faith, it was necessary that it should be 
carefully distinguished from repentance. 

XX. Now,as a hatred of sin, which is the commencement 
of repentance, is our first introduction to the knowledge of 
Christ, who reveals himself to none but miserable and dis- 
tressed sinners, who mourn, and labour, and are heavy laden ; 
who hunger and thirst, and are pining away with grief and 
misery; (/) so it is necessary for us, if we desire to abide in 
Christ, to strive for this repentance, to devote our whole lives 
to it, and to pursue it to the last. For he ‘ came to call sin- 
ners,” but it was to call them ‘‘to repentance.” (/) He was 
“sent to bless” the unworthy; but it was ‘‘in turning away 
every one from his iniquities.” (7) ‘The Scripture is full of 
such expressions. Wherefore, when God offers remission of 
sins, he generally requires repentance on the part of the sinner; 
implying that his mercy ought to furnish a motive to excite us 
to repentance. ‘Keep ye judgment, and do justice ; for my 
salvation is near.”’(m) Again: “ ‘The Redeemer shall come to 
Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob.” (0) 
Again: ‘‘Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye 
upon him while he is near: let the wicked forsake his way, 
and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto 
the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him.” (p) Again: 
“Repent, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted 
out.”’(q) Here it must be remarked, however, that this con- 
dition is not annexed in such a manner, as though our repent- 
ance were the fundamental and meritorious cause of pardon ; 
but rather, because the Lord has determined to have mercy 
upon men, in order that they may repent, he informs them 
what course they must take if they wish to obtain his favour. 
Therefore, as long as we inhabit the prison of our body, we 
shall have to maintain an incessant conflict with the vices of 


(h) Acts v. 31. (z) 1 Cor. i. 30. (k) Isaiah Ixi.1. Matt. xi.5. Luke v.18 
(/) Matt. ix. 13. (m) Acts iii. 26. (n) Isaiah vi. 1. 
(0) Isaiah lix. 20. (p) Isaiah lv. 6, 7. (q) Acts iii. 19. 


VOL. I. 70 


~ 


a54 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 11 
our corrupt nature, and even with our natural soul. Plato 
sometimes says, that the life of a philosopher is a meditation 
of death. We may assert with more truth, that the life of a 
Christian is perpetually employed in the mortification of the 
flesh, till it is utterly destroyed, and the Spirit of God obtains 
the sole empire within us. Wherefore I think that he has 
made a very considerable proficiency, who has learned to be 
exceedingly displeased with himself: not that he should remain 
in this distress, and advance no further, but rather hasten and 
aspire towards God; that being ingrafted into the death and 
life of Christ, he may make repentance the object of his con- 
stant meditation and pursuit. And this cannot but be the con- 
duct of those who feel a genuine hatred of sin; for no man 
ever hated sin, without having been previously captivated with 
the love of righteousness. This doctrine, as it is the most 
simple of all, so also it appears to me to be most consistent with 
the truth of the Scripture. 

XXI. That repentance is a peculiar gift of God, must, I 


think, be so evident from the doctrine just stated, as to preclude - 


the necessity of a long discourse to prove it. Therefore the 
Church praises and admires the goodness of God, that he 
‘hath granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life ; ” (r) and 
Paul, when he enjoins Timothy to be patient and gentle to- 
wards unbelievers, says, ‘‘ If God, peradventure, will give them 
repentance, that they may recover themselves out of the snare 
of the devil.” (s) God affirms, indeed, that he wills the con- 
version of all men, and directs his exhortations promiscuously 
to all; but the efficacy of these exhortations depends on the 
Spirit of regeneration. For it were more easy to make ourselves 
men, than by our own power to endue ourselves with a more 
excellent nature. ‘Therefore, in the whole course of regenera- 
tion, we are justly styled God’s ‘‘ workmanship, created unto 
good works, which God hath before ordained that we should 
walk in them.’ (¢) Whomsoever God chooses to rescue from 
destruction, them he vivifies by the Spirit of regeneration : not 
that repentance is properly the cause of salvation, but because, as 
we have already seen, it is inseparable from faith and the mercy 
of God; since, according to the testimony of Isaiah, “the Re- 
deemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from trans- 
gression in Jacob.”?(w) It remains an unshaken truth, that 
wherever the fear of God prevails in the heart, the Spirit has 
operated to the salvation of that individual. Therefore, in 
Isaiah, where believers are bewailing and deploring their being 
deserted by God, they mention this as a sign of reprobation, 
that their hearts are hardened by him.(w) ‘The apostle also, 


(r) Acts xi. 18. (s) 2 Tim. ii. 25, 26. (t) Eph. ii. 10, 
(u) Isaiah lix. 20 (w) Isaiah Ixiii. 17. 


CHAP. 11.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 555 


intending to exclude apostates from all hope of salvation, as- 
serts, as a reason, that ‘‘it is impossible to renew them again 
unto repentance ;’’(x) because God, in the renewal of those 
whom he will not suffer to perish, discovers an evidence of his 
paternal favour, and attracts them to himself with the radiance 
of his serene and joyful countenance ; whilst, on the contrary, 
he displays his wrath in hardening the reprobate, whose im- 
piety is never to be forgiven. (y) This kind of vengeance the 
apostle denounces against wilful apostates, who, when they de- 
part from the faith of the gospel, deride God, contumeliously 
reject his grace, profane and trample on the blood of Christ, 
and do all in their power to crucify him again. For he does 
not, as is pretended by some preposterously severe persons, pre- 
elude all voluntary sinners from a hope of pardon. His design 
is to show that apostasy is unworthy of every excuse, and 
therefore it is not strange that God punishes such a sacrilegious 
contempt of himself with inexorable rigour. “For it is im- 
possible (he tells us) for those who were once enlightened, and 
hare tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of 
the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and 
the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to 
renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to 
themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open 
shame.” (z) Again: “If we sin wilfully after that we have 
received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more 
sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking-for of judg- 
ment.” (a) ‘These are the passages, from a misinterpretation 
of which the Novatians formerly derived a pretence for their 
extravagant opinions; and the apparent harshness of which has 
offended some good men, and induced them to believe that this 
Epistle is supposititious, though every part of it contains une- 
quivocal evidences of the apostolic spirit. But as we are con- 
tending only with those who receive it, it is easy to show that 
these passages afford not the least countenance to their error. 
In the first place, the apostle must necessarily be in unison with 
his Master, who affirms that “ all sin and blasphemy shall be for- 
given unto men,but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, which 
shall not be forgiven, neither in this world, neither in the world 
to come.’’(b, ‘The apostle, I say, must certainly have been 
content with this exception, unless we wish to make him an 
enemy to the grace of Christ. Whence it follows, that pardon 
is denied to no particular sins, except one, which proceeds from 
desperate fury, and cannot be attributed to infirmity, but clearly 
proves a.man to be possessed by the devil. 
/ 


(x) Heb. vi. 4. (y) Heb. x. 29. (z) Heb. vi. 4—6. 
(2) Heb. x. 26, 27. (6) Matt. xii. 31, 32. Mark iii. 23,29. Luke xu. 10. 


556 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK III. 


XXII. But, for the further elucidation of this subject, it is 
necessary to inquire into the nature of that dreadful crime 
which will obtain no forgiveness. Augustine somewhere de- 


fines it to be an obstinate perverseness, attended with a despair 


of pardon, and continued till death; but this is not consistent 
with the language of Christ, that “it shall not be forgiven in 
this world.” For either this is a vain assertion, or the sin may 
be committed in this life. But if the definition of Augustine 
be right, it is. never committed unless it continue till death. 
Others say, that a man sins against the Holy Ghost, who en- 
vies the grace bestowed on his brother. I know no foundation 
for this notion. But we will adduce the true definition ; which 
when it shall have been proved by strong testimonies, will of 
itself easily overturn all others. I say, then, that the sin 


against the Holy Ghost is committed by those who, though 
~ they are so overpowered with the splendour of Divine truth 


that they cannot pretend ignorance, nevertheless resist it with 
determined malice, merely for the sake of resisting it. For 
Christ, in explanation of what he had asserted, immediately 
subjoins, ‘‘ Whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of 
man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh 
against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him.” (¢) 
And Matthew, instead of “blasphemy against the Spirit,” 
says, ‘‘blasphemy of the Spirit.’* How can any one 
cast a reproach on the Son, that is not also directed against 
the Spirit? ‘Those who unadvisedly offend against the 
truth of God, which they know not, and who ignorantly 
revile Christ, but at the same time have such a disposition 
that they would not extinguish the Divine truth if revealed 
to them, or utter one injurious word against him whom they 
knew to be the Lord’s Christ, — they sin against the Father and 
the Son. ‘Thus there are many, in the present day, who most 
inveterately execrate the doctrines of the gospel, which if they 
knew to be the evangelical doctrine, they would be ready to 
venerate with their whole heart. But those who are convinced 
in their conscience, that it is the word of God which they re- 
ject and oppose, and yet continue their opposition, — they are 
said to blaspheme against the Spirit, because they strive against 
the illumination which is the work of the Holy Spirit. Such 
were some among the Jews, who, when they were not able to 


resist the Spirit (d) that spake by Stephen, yet obstinately 


strove to resist. Many of them were undoubtedly urged to this 

conduct by a zeal for the law; but it appears that there were 

‘thers, who were infuriated by a malignant impiety against 
* tov Tvevwatos Biaopyura, Matt. xii. 31. 

(c) Matt. xii. 32, (d) Acts vi. 10. 


CHAP. 111.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 557 


God himself, that is, against the doctrine. which*they knew to 
be from God. Such also were the Pharisees, whom the Lord 
rebuked; who, in order to counteract the influence of the Holy 
Spirit, slanderously ascribed it to the power of Beelzebub. ¢e) 
This, then, is ‘‘ blasphemy of the Spirit,” where the presumption 
of man deliberately strives to annihilate the glory of God. 
This is implied in the observation of Paul, that he ‘“ obtained 
mercy, because”? he had ‘‘ignorantly in unbelief” committed 
those crimes, the demerits of which would otherwise have ex- 
cluded him from the grace of the Lord.(f) If the union of 
ignorance and unbelief was the reason of his obtaining pardon, 
it follows that there is no room for pardon where unbelief has 
been attended with knowledge. 

XXIII. But, on a careful observation, you will perceive that 
the apostle speaks not of one or more particular falls, but of the 
universal defection, by which the reprobate exclude themselves 
from sa.vation. We need not wonder that those whom John, 
in his canonical Hpistle, affirms not to have been of the numbe1 
of the elect from whom they departed, experience God to be 
implacable towards them.(g@) For he directs his discourse 
against those who imagined that they might return to the 
Christian religion, although they had once apostatized from it ; 
to whom he contradicts this false and pernicious notion, declar- 
ing, what is absolutely true, that it is impossible for persons to 
return to the communion of Christ, who have knowingly and 
wilfully rejected it. And it is rejected, not by those who sim- 
ply transgress the word of the Lord by a dissolute and licen- 
tious life, but by those who professedly renounce all his doc- 
trines. Therefore the fallacy les in the terms falling away 
and sinning ; for the Novatians explain falling away to take 
place, when any one, after having been instructed by the law 
of the Lord that theft and fornication ought not to be com- 
mitted, yet abstains not from either of these sins. But, on the 
contrary, I affirm that there is a tacit antithesis understood, which 
ought to contain a repetition of all the opposites of the things 
which had been previously mentioned ; so that this passage. ex- 
presses not any particular vice, but a universal defection from 
God, and if I may use the expression, an apostasy of the whole 
man. When he speaks, therefore,.of some who fell away, “ after 
' they were once enlightened, and had tasted of the heavenly gift, 
and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and the powers of © 
the world to come,” () it must be understood of persons who, 
with deliberate impiety, have smothered the light of the Spirit, 
rejected the taste of the heavenly gift, alienated themselves from 
the sanctification of the Spirit, and trampled on the word of God 


(e) Matt. ix. 34; xii. 24. (g) 1 John 1. 19. 
(f) 1 Tim. i. 13. (kh) Heb. vi. 4—6 


558 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book m. 


and the powers of the world to come. And the more fully to 
express that decided determination of impiety, he afterwards, 
in another place, adds the word wilfully. For when he says, 
that ‘‘if we sin wilfully after that we have received the know- 
ledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice,’ (¢) he 
denies not that Christ is a perpetual sacrifice to expiate the ini- 
quities of the saints,’ which almost the whole Epistle expressly 
proclaims in describing the priesthood of Christ, but intends 
that there remains no other where that is rejected. But 
it is rejected, when the truth of the gospel is avowedly re- 
nounced. 

XXIV. The objection of some, who conceive it to be severe 
and inconsistent with the Divine clemency, that pardon should 
be refused to any who flee to the Lord imploring his mercy, is 
easily answered. For he affirms not that pardon is denied to 
them if they turn themselves to the Lord; but he absolutely 
denies the possibility of their attaining to repentance, because 
they are stricken with eternal blindness by the righteous judg- 
ment of God, on account of their ingratitude. Nor is it any 
objection that the same apostle afterwards accommodates to 
this subject the example of Esau, who vainly endeavoured 
with weeping and lamentation to recover his lost rights of 
primogeniture. Nor that the prophet utters this denunciation: 
‘though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto 
them.” (kK) For such forms of expression signify neither true 
conversion nor invocation of God, but the anxiety felt by the 
impious in extreme calamity, which constrains them to con- 
sider, what before they carelessly disregarded, that nothing 
can do them any good but the assistance of the Lord. And 
this they do not so much implore, as bewail its being 
withheld from them. Therefore the prophet intends by 
crying, and the apostle by weeping, only that dreadful torment 
which excruciates the impious with the agonies of despair. 
This requires to be carefully observed, because otherwise this 
procedure of God would contradict his proclamation by the 
mouth of the prophet, that as soon as the sinner shall have 
turned, he will be propitious to him.(/) And, as I have 
already remarked, it is certain that the human mind is not 
changed for the better, except by the previous influence of his 
grace. Nor will his promise respecting those who call upon 
him, ever deceive ; but it is improper to apply the terms con- 
version and prayer to that blind torment by which the 
reprobate are distracted, when they see that it is necessary for 
them to seek God in order to find a remedy for their miseries, 
while at the same time they continue to flee from his approach. 


(t) Heb. x. 26. _ (k) Jer. xi. 11. (l) Ezek. xviii. 21. 


® 


OHAP. III. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 559 


XXV. But it is inquired, since the apostle denies that God 
is appeased by a hypocritical repentance, how Ahab obtained 
pardon, and averted the punishment with which he had been 
threatened, though he appears, from the subsequent tenor of 
his life, to have been only terrified by a sudden consternation. 
He clothed himself with sackcloth, sprinkled ashes upon his 
head, lay on the ground, and, as it is declared concerning him, 
“humbled himself before God;” (m) but it was nothing to 
rend his garments, while his heart remained perverse and in- 
flated with wickedness. Yet we see how God is inclined to 
clemency. I reply, that sometimes hypocrites are thus spared 
for a season, yet that the wrath of God always abides upon 
them, and that this is done not so much for their sakes, as for a 
public example. For what benefit did Ahab receive from the 
mitigation of the threatened punishment, but a respite from it 
during his continuance in this world? 'The malediction of 
God, therefore, although concealed, fixed itself in his family, | 
and he himself went forward ‘to eternal perdition. 'The same 
may be observed in the case of Esau; for though he suffered a 
repulse, yet a temporal benediction was granted to his tears. (7m) 
But since the spiritual inheritance, according to the oracle of 
God, could remain only with one of the brothers, when Jacob 
was chosen and Esau rejected, that preterition shut out the 
Divine mercy ; yet this consolation was left to him as to aman 
on a level with the brutes, that he should be enriched with 
“the fatness of the earth and the dew of heaven.’ ‘This is 
what I have just observed ought to be considered as an exam- 
ple to others, that we may learn to devote our minds and our 
exertions with more alacrity to sincere repentance ; because it 
is not to be doubted that those who are truly and cordially 
converted will find God readily disposed to forgiveness, whose 
‘clemency extends itself even to the unworthy, as long as they 
manifest any appearance of contrition. At the same time, also, 
we are taught what dreadful vengeance awaits all the obstinate, 
who, with impudent countenances and hardened hearts, de- 
spise, disregard, and ridicule the Divine threatenings. Thus he 
frequently extended his hand to the children of Israel, to alle- 
viate their distresses, notwithstanding their supplications were 
hypocritical, and their hearts full of duplicity and perfidy ; as 
he complains in one of the Psalms, (o) that they immediately 
after returned to their former courses. He designed by his 
merciful kindness, either to bring them to a serious conversion, 
or to render them inexcusable. Yet, by the temporary remis- 
sion of punishments, he imposes on himself no perpetual law, 
but sometimes arises against hypocrites with the greater seve- 


(m) 1 Kings xxi 27, &c. = (n) Gen. xxvii. 38, 39. (0) Psalm Ixxviu. 36, 37, 


560 INSTITUTES OF THE [bhOOK III. 


rity, and enhances their punishments, to manifest his extreme — 


displeasure against hypocrisy. But he exhibits, as I have 
observed, some examples of his readiness to pardon, in order to 
animate the pious to a correction of their lives, and the more 
severely to condemn the pride of those who obstinately kick 
against the goads. 


CHAPTER IY. 


THE SOPHISTRY AND JARGON OF THE SCHOOLS CONCERNING RE- 
PENTANCE, VERY REMOTE FROM THE PURITY OF THE GOSPEL. 
ON CONFESSION AND SATISFACTION. 


I come now to the discussion of those things which have 
been advanced by the sophists of the schools concerning Re- 
pentance, which I shall run over as briefly as possible ; for it is 
not my design to pursue the subject at large, lest this book, 
which I am endeavouring to make a compendium of doctrine, 
should be drawn out to an immoderate extent. ‘They have 
involved a subject, otherwise not very intricate, in so many 
perplexities, that those who have entered but a little way into 
their labyrinths will not find it easy to extricate themselves. 
In the first place, the definition they have given of repentance, 
clearly shows that they never understood what it was; for they 


catch at some passages in the writings of the fathers, which by no ~ 


means express the nature of repentance ; as, ‘that to repent is 
to weep for sins previously committed, and not to commit sins to 
be wept for.” Again: ‘that itis to lament evils that are past, and 
not to commit new ones to be lamented.”” Again: “ that it isa 
kind of mournful vengeance, punishing in ourselves what we 
bewail having committed.” Again: “that it is a sorrow of 
heart and bitterness of soul on account of the evils which a 
man has committed, or to which he has consented.” But 
though we concede that these expressions were properly used 
by the fathers, which, however, a contentious man would find 
no difficulty in denying, yet they were used not with a view 
to describe repentance, but only to exhort their readers to avoid 
relapsing into those crimes from which they had been delivered. 
But if we are disposed to convert all observations of this kind 
into definitions, others may be added with equal propriety. As 
this of Chrysostom, “‘ Repentance is a medicine which dene 
sin, a gift bestowed from heaven, an admirable virtue, a ‘grace 
exceeding the power of laws.” Moreover, the doctrine which 


$ 


i 4 


they afterwards advance is still worse than these definitions; 


ha ae 


CHAP. 1v.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 561 


for they are so obstinately riveted to external exercises, that 
one can collect nothing else from immense volumes, but that 
repentance is an austere discipline, which serves partly to sub- 
due the flesh, partly to chastise and punish vices; but concern- 
ing the internal renovation of the mind, which is attended with 
a real reformation of the life, they observe a wonderful silence. 
Of contrition and attrition, indeed, they treat largely ; they tor- 
ment souls with a multitude of scruples, and drive them to 
extreme trouble and anxiety; but when they appear to have 
thoroughly wounded the heart, they heal all the bitterness by 
a slight sprinkling of ceremonies. Having thus quaintly de- 
fined repentance, they divide it into contrition of heart, confes- 
sion of mouth, and satisfaction of work—a division which is 
no more agreeable to the rules of logic than their definition, 
though they would be thought to have spent their whole lives 
in composing syllogisms. But should any one reason from the 
definition, (which is a kind of argumentation common among 
logicians, ) that a man may weep for sins previously cémmitted, 
and commit no more to be wept for; may lament evils that are 
past, and commit no more to be lamented; may punish what 
he mourns that he has committed, &c., although he makes no 
confession with his mouth; how will they defend their di- 
vision? For if he who confesses not, be nevertheless truly - 
penitent, repentance may exist where there is no confession. 
But if they reply that this division refers to repentance as a 
sacrament, or is to be understood of the complete perfection of 
repentance, which they comprehend not in their definition, 
they have no reason to accuse me; let them impute the blame 
to themselves, for not giving definitions with more correctness 
and perspicuity. For myself, indeed, according to my dull 
capacity, in all controversies I refer every thing to the defini- 
tion, which is the hinge and foundation of the whole argument. 
But, admitting this to be their magisterial license, we proceed 
to an attentive examination of the parts themselves in order. 
When I neglect, and pass over as frivolous, things which, with 
supercilious gravity, they represent as mysteries, I never do it 
- without design; not that I should find it very laborious to can- 
_vass the arguments in which they conceive themselves to have 
discovered most shrewdness and subtilty ; but I could not con- 
scientiously fatigue my readers with such impertinences to no 
good purpose. From the questions which they raise and agi- 
tate, and with which they miserably embarrass themselves, it 
is easy to see, that they talk of subjects of which they are 
utterly ignorant; such as this: Whether repentance for one 
sin be pleasing to God during an obstinate continuance in 
others. Again: Whether punishments inflicted by God be. 
available for satisfaction. Again: Whether repentance may b>» . 
VOL. 1. (au 


562 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book IIT. 


frequently repeated for mortal sins. On this point they shame- 
fully and impiously determine, that. repentance is daily prac- 
tised only for venial sins. They also torment themselves 
much with a gross error, in an expression of Jerome, “ That 
repentance is a second plank after a shipwreck ;” thus giving 
proof, that they have never been awakened from their brutish 


stupidity, so as to have even the most distant view of the thou- 


sandth part of their sins. 

II. I wish the reader to consider, that this is not a conten- 
tion about an insignificant trifle, but a question respecting the 
most serious of all subjects — remission of sins. For by requir- 
ing, in repentance, compunction of heart, confession of mouth, 
and satisfaction of work, they maintain, that these three things 
are necessary to procure the remission of sins. But if it be im- 
portant for us to know any thing in the whole science of reli- 
gion, it is certainly of the greatest importance to apprehend, 
and fully to understand, by what means, by what law, on what 


condition, and with what facility or difficulty, remission of sins — 


may be obtained. Unless this knowledge be clear and certain, 
the conscience can have no rest, no peace with God, no confi- 
dence or security ; but is the subject of perpetual trepidations 
and fluctuations, is disturbed, tormented, and harassed, and 
dreads, hates, and avoids the presence of God. But if remis- 
sion of sins depend on those conditions to which they confine 
it, we are in a most miserable and deplorable situation. ‘They 
make contrition the first step towards obtaining pardon, and re- 
quire such as is due from us, that is, such as is just and perfect ; 
but they have not determined, when a man may be assured 
that he has arrived at this degree of perfect contrition. I grant, 
indeed, that every man ought to be sedulously and earnestly 
urged, that by bitterly mourning for his sins, he may continu- 
ally augment his displeasure and hatred against them. For 
this ‘sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be re- 
pented of.”’(p) But when such an anguish of sorrow is re- 


quired as may correspond to the magnitude of the guilt, and- 
may be weighed in the balance with confidence of pardon, 


then the wretched conscience is wonderfully tormented and 


agitated, when it sees a due contrition for sins imposed on it, 


and understands not the extent of the debt so as to be able to 
decide with itself that it has discharged what was due from it. 
If they say that we must do what we can, we still return to 
the same point; for when will any man presume to flatter 
himself that he has exerted all his power in bewailing his sins? 


Consciences, therefore, that have been long striving with them- — 


selves, and exercised in tedious conflicts, but without findimg 


(p) 2 Cor. vii. 10. 


CHAP. Iv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 5b3 


at length any place of rest, endeavour to procure some small 
alleviation, extorting from, themselves some sorrow, and forcing 
out some tears to complete their contrition. 

Ill. If they charge me with calumny, let them come forth 
and produce a single individual, who has not, byythis doctrine 
of contrition, either been driven into despair, or endeavoured 
to avert the Divine judgment by a pretended sorrow instead 
of real compunction. We have said ourselves, that forgiveness 
of sins is never enjoyed without repentance, because none but 
those who are afflicted and wounded with a consciousness of 
sins, can sincerely implore the mercy of God; but we have 
likewise added, that repentance is not the cause of remission 
of sins. But those torments of soul, which they say are duties 
to be performed, we have put aside. We have taught the sin- 
ner not to look on his compunction or on his tears, but to fix 
both his eyes solely on the mercy of God. We have only de- 
clared, that Christ called the labouring and heavy-laden, when 
he was sent ‘‘to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the 
broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and 
the opening of the prison to them that are bound, and to com- 
fort all that mourn.” (g) This would exclude the Pharisees, 
who, satisfied with the own righteousness, acknowledge not 
their poverty ; and despisers, who, careless of the wrath of God, 
seek no remedy for their disease ; for such neither labour, nor 
are heavy-laden; they are not broken-hearted, or in bondage, 
or in captivity. But there is a considerable difference, whether 
a man be taught to merit remission of sins by a true and perfect 
contrition, (which no sinner can ever perform,) or be instructed 
to hunger and thirst for the Divine mercy, that by the know- 
ledge of his misery, by his disquietude, fatigue, and captivity, 
he may be shown where he ought to seek for consolation, rest, 
and liberty, and may learn to glorify God by his humility. 

IV. Concerning confession, there has always been a great 
controversy between the canonists and the scholastic divines ; 
the latter contending, that confession is commanded by the 
word of God; the other, on the contrary, maintaining that it 
is enjoined only by the ecclesiastical constitutions. But this 
controversy has discovered the singular impudence of the the- 
ologians, who have corrupted and violently distorted all the 
passages of Scripture which .they have cited in favour of their 
argument. And when they perceived that they could not even 
thus obtain what they desired, those who would appear more 
shrewd than others, resorted to this subterfuge, that confession, 
as to the substance of it, came from the Divine law, but after- 
wards derived its form from a positive law. Ina similar man- 


(q) Matt. xi. 28. Luke iv. 18. Isaiah Ixi. 1, &¢ 


564. INSTITUTES OF THE [Book m1. 


ner the most foolish lawyers pretend, that citations originated 
from the Divine law, because it is said, ‘‘ Adam, where art 
thou?” (r) and exceptions also, because Adam answered, as if 
by way of exception, ‘The woman whom thou gavest to be 
with me,” &e.; but that both received their form from the 
civil code. But let us examine by what arguments they prove 
this confession, either formal or informal, to have been com- 
manded by God. The Lord, say they, sent leprous persons to 
the priests. What then? Did he send them to confession? 
Who ever heard that the Levitical priests were appointed to 
hear confessions? Therefore they resort to allegories: it was 
enacted by the Mosaic law, that the priests should distinguish 
between leprosy and leprosy; sin is a spiritual leprosy, con- 
cerning which it is the office of the priests to decide. Before 
I reply to this, I would inquire, by the way, if this passage 
constitutes them judges of the spiritual leprosy, why do they 
arrogate to themselves the cognizance of the natural and cor- 
poreal leprosy? Is not this trifling with the Scriptures? 
The law commits to the Levitical priests the cognizance of 
the leprosy ; let us usurp this to ourselves. Sin is a spiritual 
leprosy; let us also take cognizance of sin. Now, I reply, 


“The priesthood being changed, there is made, of necessity, 


a change also of the law.” (s) All the priestly functions 
have been transferred to Christ; in him they are fulfilled 
and finished; therefore every privilege and honour of the sa- 
cerdotal office has been transferred to him alone. If they are 
so extremely fond of pursuing allegories, let them propose 
Christ to themselves as the only priest, and accumulate on his 
tribunal the unlimited jurisdiction over all things; this we 
shall easily admit. Besides, this allegory of theirs is very ab- 
surd, since it places among the ceremonies a law that was 
merely political. Why, then, does Christ send leprous persons 
to the priests? ‘To preclude the priests from calumniating him 
with a violation of the law, which commanded him that was 
cured of the leprosy to show himself to the priest, and to be 
purged by the oblation of a sacrifice. ‘‘ Go (said he) show thy- 
self to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for 
a testimony unto them.” (¢) And truly this miracle was to be 


a testimony to them; for they had pronounced him leprous, — 


now they pronounce him healed. . Are they not, whether will- — 


ingly or reluctantly, constrained to become witnesses of the 


miracles of Christ? Christ gives them his miracle for their 


examination; they cannot deny it; but because they still cavil, 
this work is a testimony to them. Thus it is said, “ This 
gospel shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto 


(r) Gen. iii. 9, 12. (s) Heb. vii. 12. 
(t) Matt vii.4. Luke v.14; xvii.14. Lev. xiv. 2, &e. 


~ 


CHAP. Iv.| CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 565 


all nations.” (w) Again: ‘Ye shall be brought before govern- 
ors and~kings, for a testimony against them.’ (w) That is, 
that they may be more powerfully convicted at the judgment 
of God. But if they would rather coincide with Chrysostom, 
he also teaches, that Christ did this on account of the Jews, 
that he might not be deemed a transgressor of the law. 
Though on a point so clear | am ashamed to adduce the suf- 
frage of any man; when Christ declares that he leaves the 
legal rights entirely to the priests, as the professed enemies of 
the gospel; who were always ready to cavil, if their mouths 
Were not stopped. Wherefore the Popish priests, in order to” 
retain this possession, should publicly espouse the party of 
those whom it is necessary to restrain by force from uttering 
their curses against Christ. For with this his true ministers 
have no concern. 

VY. Their second argument they derive from the same 
source, that is, from allegory; as though allegories were sufli- 
cient for the confirmation of any dogma. Let them be admitted 
as sufficient, if I do not prove that those very allegories may 
be urged by me with more plausibility than they possibly can 
by them. They plead, therefore, that the Lord commanded 
his disciples to loose Lazarus from his bandages, when he was 
raised from the grave.(x) Here, in the first place, they are 
cuilty of falsehood ; for it is nowhere recorded, that the Lord 
said this to his disciples ; and it is much more probable that he 
said it to the Jews who were standing near him, that the mira- 
cle might be rendered more evident, beyond all suspicion of 
fraud, and that his power might appear the greater, from his 
raising the dead to life without the least touch, solely by the 
call of his voice. For I apprehend, that the Lord, in order to 
remove from the minds of the Jews every unfavourable suspi- 
cion, chose that they should roll back the stone, should per- 
ceive the fetid odour, should see the certain tokens of death, 
should behold him rising by the sole energy of a word, and be 
the first to touch him on his restoration to life. And this is 
the opinion of Chrysostom. - But admitting this to have been 
addressed to the disciples, what will they gain by it?) That 
the Lord gave his apostles the power of loosing; but with how 
much more aptitude and skill might these words be handled in 
an allegorical sense, if we should say, that God intended by 
this emblem to instruct believers, that they ought to loose 
those whom he has raised to life; that is, that they should not 
recall to remembrance the sins which he had forgotten; that 
they should not condemn as sinners those whom he had ab- 
solved ; that they should not continue to upbraid with offences 


(u) Matt. xxiv. 14. (w) Matt. x. 18. (z) John xi. 44. 


566 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 111 


which he had forgiven; that where he is merciful and ready to 


spare, they should not be severe and rigorous to punish! No- 
thing, surely, ought to be a stronger motive to the exercise of 
forgiveness by us, than the example of that judge, who threat- 
ens to be implacable towards them who are too rigorous and 
cruel. Let them go now and boast of their allegories. 

_ VI. They come to a closer contest, when they oppose us 
with what they apprehend to be plain passages. ‘Those who 
came to the baptism of John confessed their sins;(y) and 
James directs us to confess our sins one to another. (z) It is 
no wonder, if those who desired to be baptized confessed their 
sins, for it is said, that John “ preached the baptism of repent- 
ance,” and “ baptized with water unto repentance.” Whom, 
then, should he baptize, but such as confessed themselves sin- 
ners’ Baptism is an emblem of remission of sins; and who 
should be admitted to this emblem but sinners, and those who 
acknowledged themselves to be such? ‘They confessed their 
sins, therefore, in order to be baptized. Nor is it without rea- 
son that James directs us to confess one to another. But if 
they would observe what immediately follows, they would 
perceive, that this also affords them very little support. ‘‘ Con- 
fess (says he) your faults one to another, and pray for one 


another.” He connects mutual confession and mutual prayer. 


If our confessions must be made only to priests, then our 
prayers ought to be offered up for them alone. But would it 
not follow from the Janguage of James, that priests alone 
might make confessions? For when he enjoins mutual con- 
fession, he addresses such only as havea right to hear the 
confessions of others. Addo implies mutually, by turns, 
successively, or reciprocally. But none can reciprocally con- 
fess, but those who are qualified to hear confessions. And 
since they dignify the . priests exclusively with this preroga- 
tive,+ we also relinquish to them alone the task of making con- 
fession. ‘Then let us dismiss such impertinences, and attend 


to the real meaning of the apostle, which is simple and 


clear; it is, that we should reciprocally communicate our in- 
firmities to each other, to receive from one another mutual 
advice, mutual compassion, and mutual consolation ; and, also, 
that being mutually conscious of the infirmities of our bre- 
thren, we should pray to the Lord on their behalf. Why, then, 
do they quote James in opposition to us, when we so strongly 
urge a confession of the Divine mercy? But no man can confess 
the mercy of God, if he has not previously confessed his own 
misery. Indeed, we rather pronounce an anathema against him 
who has not confessed himself a sinner before God, before his 


(y) Matt. iii. 6. (z) James v. 16. 


Bit 


CHAP. Iv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 567 


angels, before the Church, and, in a word, before all mankind. 
‘For the Scripture hath concluded all under sin —that every 
mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty 
before God;”’ (a) and that he alone may be justified and 
exalted. 

Vil. But I wonder with what face they can presume to 
contend, that the confession of which they speak is of Divine 
appointment. 'The practice we admit to be very ancient, but 
we can easily prove, that Christians were formerly quite at 
liberty as to the use of it. That there was no fixed law or 
constitution respecting it till the time of Innocent III, is 
certain from the testimony of their own histories. Sure- 
ly, if there had been a more ancient law, they would rather 
have cited it, than, by being content with a decree of the 
Council of Lateran, have rendered themselves ridiculous even 
in the eyes of children. ‘They hesitate not in other cases to 
fabricate fictitious decrees, which they ascribe to the most an- 
cient councils, that they may dazzle the eyes of the simple by 
a veneration for antiquity. In this instance they never thought 
of obtruding such a forgery. Therefore, according to their 
own testimony, three hundred years have not yet elapsed, since 
Innocent ILI. introduced the snare, and imposed the necessi- 
ty of confession. But, to say nothing respecting the time, 
the barbarism of the diction is, of itself, sufficient to deprive 
that law of all credit. For the good fathers enjoin, that eve- 
ry person, of both sexes, shall, once in every year, make a 
‘particular confession of all sins to the proper priest ; but some 
wits facetiously object, that this precept binds none but her- 
maphrodites, and relates to no one who is either a male or a fe- 
male. Moreover, their disciples have betrayed still greater 
folly, in their inability to explain what is meant by the proper 
priest. Whatever may be clamorously pretended by all the 
Pope’s mercenary disputants, we are certain, that Christ was 
not the author of this law, which compels men to enumerate 
their sins, and that twelve centuries passed away after the re- 
surrection of Christ, before any such law was promulgated ; so 
that this tyranny was not introduced till after the extinction of 
piety and learning, when masques, occupying the place of pas- 
tors, had assumed an unlimited license of doing whatever they 
pleased. ‘There are also plain testimonies, in histories and 
other ancient writings, which inform us, that this was a politi- 
cal discipline instituted by bishops, not a law given by Christ 
or his apostles. Of a great number, I shall produce only one, 
which will be a clear proof of this assertion. Sozomen, in his 
‘ Ecclesiastical History, relates, that this ordinance of the bishops 


(a) Gal. iii. 22. Rom. ili. 9, 19 


568 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK 11. 


was diligently observed in all the Western Churches, and espe- 
cially at Rome. He fully implies that it was not the universal 
custom of all the churches, and says, that one of the Presbyters 
was peculiarly appointed to this office. In this, he abundantly 
confutes the false pretensions of these men, that the keys were 
given promiscuously, for this use, to the whole sacerdotal or- 
der, since it was not the common function of all priests, but 
the peculiar department of one who was chosen'to it by the 
bishop. This is the same, who, in the ‘present day, in every 
cathedral church is called the Penitentiary, who takes cognizance 
of crimes of peculiar enormity, and such as are censured for 
the sake of example. The historian immediately adds, that this 
was the custom also at Constantinople, till a certam matron, pre- 
tending to go to confession, was discovered to have concealed, 
under this specious pretext, a criminal connection with the dea- 
con of that church. On account of this crime, Nectarius, the 
bishop of the church, (a man eminent for sanetity and erudition, ) 
abolished the ceremony of confession. Here let them erect 
their asmine ears. If auricular confession had been a law of 
God, how could Nectarius have presumed to reverse and disan- 
nul it? Will they accuse Nectarius of heresy and schism, who 
is acknowledged by all the fathers to have been a holy man 
of God? But the same sentence would condemn the Constan- , 
tinopolitan. church, in which Sozomen affirms the custom of 
confession not only to have been discontinued for a season, but 
to have been altogether disused down to his.time. And they 
would accuse of apostasy, not only the church of Constantino- 
ple, but all the Oriental churches, who neglected a law which 
they maintain to be inviolable and obligatory on all Christians. 
VIII. But this abrogation is plainly attested by Chrysostom, 
who was himself also a bishop of the church of Constantinople, in 
so many places, that it is surprising how they dare to open their 
mouths in contradiction of it. ‘Confess your sins, (says he,) 
that you may obliterate them. If you are ashamed to tell any 
one what sins you have committed, confess them daily in your 
soul. I say not, that you should confess them to your fellow- 
servant, who may reproach yon; confess them to God, who 
cures them. Confess your sins on your bed, that there your 
conscience may daily recognize its crimes.” Again: “ But, 
now, it is not necessary to confess in the presence of witnesses ; 
Jet an inquisition into your transgressions be the work of your 
own thoughts; let there be no witness of this judgment ; let 
God alone see you confessing.” Again: ‘I conduct you not 
into tne public view of your fellow-servants; I do not oblige 
you to reveal your sins to men; lay open your conscience in 
the presence of God. Show your wounds to the Lord, who is 
the best physician, and implore a remedy from him; show 


CHAP. IVv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 569 


them to him, who upbraideth not, but most mercifully heals.” 
Again: ‘You certainly should not tell it to a man, lest he re- 
proach you; nor is confession to be made to a fellow-servant, 
who may publish it; but show your wounds to the Lord, who 
exercises his care over you, and is a most merciful physician.” 
He afterwards introduces God, speaking thus: ‘I constrain 
you not to come forth into the midst of a theatre, and assemble 
a multitude of witnesses; declare your sin privately to me 
alone, that [ may heal your wound.” Shall we say, that Chry- 
sostom proceeded to such a degree of temerity, when he wrote 
those and similar passages, as to liberate the consciences of - 
men from obligations imposed on them by the Divine law? 
Certainly not. But he dares not to require as necessary what 
he knows is never prescribed in the word of God. 

IX. But to place the whole subject in a more plain and fa- 
miliar light, we will first faithfully state what kind of confes- 
sion is taught in the word of God; and then we will subjoin 
an account of those inventions of the Papists, not indeed of all, 
(for who could exhaust that immense ocean?) but only of 
those which comprise the substance of their doctrine respecting 
secret confession. Here it grieves me to mention, how fre- 
quently the old translator has translated confess instead of 
praise; which is well known even to the most unlearned ; 
only it is necessary to expose their audacity, in transferring to 
their own tyrannical edict what was written with reference to 
the praises of God. 'T’o prove the virtue of confession to exhi- 
larate the mind, they produce this passage from the Psalmist: 
“With the voice of exultation and confession.” (b) But if 
such a metamorphosis of the passage be admitted, we shall be 
able toinfer any thing from any thing. But since they are thus 
lost to all sense of shame, let the pious reader remember, that they 
have been consigned over to a reprobate mind by the righteous 
vengeance of God, to render their presumption the more detesta- 
ble. If we are satisfied with the simple doctrine of the Scripture, 
we shall be in no danger of being deluded by such fallacies ; 
for there one method of confession is prescribed ; which is, that 
since it is the Lord who forgives, forgets, and obliterates sins, 
we should confess our sins to him, that we may obtain par- 
don. He is a physician; to him, then, let us discover our 
wounds. He is injured and offended; let us pray to him 
for peace. He is the searcher of hearts, and privy to all 
thoughts; let us hasten to pour out our hearts before him. 
Finally, it is he who calls sinners; let us not delay to ap- 
proach him. David says, “I acknowledge my sin unto thee, 
and mine iniquity have [not hid. I said, I will confess my 


(6) Psalm xlii. 4. 
VOL. I. 


570 | INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 15 


transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity 
of my sin.” (c) Similar to this is another confession of David. 
‘* Have mercy upon me, O God, according unto the multitude 
of thy tender mercies.” (d) Such, also, is the confession .of 
Daniel: “‘ We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and 
have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from 
thy precepts.” (e) And such are the other confessions, which 
frequently occur in the Scriptures, the recital of which would 
almost filla volume. John says, “If we confess our sins, God 
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.”(f) To whom 
must we confess? ‘To him, certainly; and this we do, if we 
prostrate ourselves before him with a distressed and humbled 
heart ; if we sincerely accuse and condemn ourselves in his 
presence, and pray to be pardoned by his goodness and mercy. 
* X. Whoever from the heart makes this confession before 
God, will also, without doubt, have a tongue prepared for con- 
fession, as often as it shall be necessary to proclaim the Divine 
mercy among men; and not only to whisper the secret of his 
mind once into the ear of an individual, but frequently and 
publicly, and in the hearing of the whole world, ingenuously 
to declare, both his own ignominy, and the magnificence and 
glory of God. In this manner, when David was reproved by 
Nathan, he felt compunction of conscience, and confessed his 
sin both to God and to men: ‘I have sinned (said he) against 
the Lord ;” (g@) that is, 1 now. make no excuse, nor use the 
least subterfuge to prevent all men from condemning me asa 
sinner, and what I wished to conceal from the Lord, from be- 
ing revealed also to men. The secret confession, therefore, 
which is made to God, is followed by a voluntary confession 
before men, whenever it contributes either to the Divine glory 
or to our humiliation. For this reason, the Lord anciently en- 
joined upon the Israelites, that all the people should confess 
their iniquities publicly in the temple, by the mouth of 
the priest.(h) For he foresaw this assistance to be necessary 
for them, to bring every person to a proper view of himself. 
And it is reasonable, that, by the confession of our misery, we 
should glorify the goodness and mercy of God, both among 
ourselves and before the whole world. 

XI. This kind of confession onght to be both ordinary, 1 
the Church; and extraordinary, to be practised in a particular 
manner whenever the people at large are chargeable with the 
guilt of any common crime. We have an example of the lat- 
ter in that solemn confession which was made by all the 
people under the auspices of Ezra and Nehemiah. For as 


‘ 


(c) Psalm xxxii. 5. e) Dan. ix. 5. (g) 2 Sam. xii. 13. 
(d) Psalin li. 1. (f) 1 John i. 9. (h) Lev. xvi. 21 


* 


* 


CHAP. Iv. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 571 


their long exile, the destruction of their city and temple, and 
the subversion of their religion, were punishments of the com- 
mon defection of all, they could not properly acknowledge the 
blessing of deliverance, unless they had first confessed their 
guilt. Nor is it of any importance if, in a congregation, there 
be sometimes a few innocent persons; for as they are members 
of a languid and diseased body, they ought not to boast of 
health. “Nor isit possible, indeed, but they must contract some 
of the pollution, and sustain part of the guilt. Therefore, 
whenever we are afflicted with pestilence, or war, or sterility, 
or any other calamity, if it be our duty to resort to mourning, 
to fasting, and other expressions of guilt, —confession itself, on 
which all these other things depend, ought by. no means to be 
heglected. ‘The ordinary confession is not only recommended 
. from the mouth of the Lord, but no*judicious man, who has 
considered its usefulness, will venture to condemn it. For 
since, in every religious assembly, we introduce ourselves into 
the presence of God and angels, how shall we commence our ser- 
vices, except by an acknowledgment of our unworthiness? But 
this, you will say, is done in every prayer; for whenever we 
pray for pardon, we make a confession of our sins. This I ac- 
knowledge. But, if you consider our extreme carelessness, or 
drowsiness, or stupidity, you will admit to me, that it would be 
a salutary’ regulation, if the generality of Christians were accus- 
tomed to humble themselves by some solemn act of confession. 
For though the ceremony, which the Lord enjoined on the Is- 
raelites, was a part of the tutelage of the law, yet the thing itself, 
in some measure, belongs also to us. And, indeed, we see that 
in all well-reguiated churches this custom is advantageously 
observed ; that on every Lord’s day the minister makes a for- 
mal confession, in which he represents all as guilty of sin, and 
supplicates pardon from the Lord on behalf of all. Finally, by 
this key the gate of prayer is opened, both to individuals in 
private, and in public to all the congregation. 

XII. Moreover, the Scripture sanctions two kinds of private 
confession; one to be made for our own sake, which is referred 
to in the direction of James, that: we should ‘confess our faults 
one to another ;”’ (7) for he means, that, revealing our infirmi- 
ties to one another, we should assist, each other with mutual 
advice and consolation; another, which is to be made for the 
sake of our neighbour, to pacify and reconcile him to us, if we 
have done him any injury. In the former species of confession, 
though James, by not expressly appointing any one Into whose 
bosom we should disburden ourselves, leaves us quite at liberty 
to confess to any member of the church who shall appear most 


(t) James v. 16. 


972, INSTILUTES OF THE [Book 11. 


suitable ; yet, since the pastors must generally be considered 
more proper than others, we ought chiefly to make choice of 
them. I say that they are more suitable than others, since, in 
their very vocation to the ministry, they are designated by the 
Lord, to instruct us to subdue and correct our sins, and to con- 
sole us with a confidence of pardon. For though the office of 
mutual admonition and reproof is committed to all, yet it is 
especially confided to ministers. And so, while we all ought 
mutually to console and confirm each other in a confidence of 
the Divine mercy, yet we see, that ministers are constituted wit- 
nesses and sureties of it, that they may afford our consciences 
a stronger assurance of the remission of sins; insomuch that 
they themselves. are said to remit sins and to loose souls. (x) 
When you find this attributed to them, consider that it is for 
your benefit. Therefores let every believer remember that it 
is his duty, if he feels such secret anguish or affliction from a 
sense of his sins, that he cannot extricate himself without 
some exterior aid, not to neglect the remedy offered him by 
the Lord; which is, that in order to alleviate his distress, he 
should use private confession with his pastor, and, to obtaim 
consolation, should privately implore his assistance, whose 
office it is, both publicly and privately, to comfort the people 
of God with the doctrine of the gospel. But we should 
always observe such a degree of moderation, as to lay no yoke 
on the conscience, where God has given no positive command. 
Hence it follows, that such confession ought to be free, so as 
not to be required of all, but only to be recommended to those 
who conceive themselves to need it. It follows also, that they 
who practise it on account of their need of it, should neither be 
compelled by any precept, nor be induced by any artifice, to 
enumerate all their sins; but only so far as they shall think 
beneficial to themselves, that they may receive solid consola- 
tion. Faithful pastors ought not only to leave the churches in 
possession of this liberty, but also to defend and vindicate it 
with all their power, if they wish to preserve their ministry 
from tyranny, and the people from superstition. 3 

XIII. Concerning the other species of confession, Christ 
says, in the Gospel of Matthew, ‘‘If thou bring thy gift to the 
altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought 
against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy 
way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and 
offer thy gift.’ (2) Thus is that charity, which has been bro- 
ken by our offence, to be repaired by acknowledging the fault 
we have committed, and imploring forgiveness. In this kind 
is comprehended the confession of those who have sinned to 


(k) Matt. xvi. 19; xviii. 18. John xx. 23. (l) Matt. v. 23, 24. 


cHap. Iv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 573 


the offence of the whole Church. For, if Christ esteems the 
private offence of one man of such importance, as to prohibit 
from the sacred’ ordinances all those who have sinned against 
their brethren till they have been restored to favour by an 
adequate satisfaction, —how much stronger is the reason, that 
he who, by any evil example, has injured the whole Church, 
should reconcile it to himself by an acknowledgment of his 
guilt! ‘Thus was the Corinthian readmitted to the communion, 
after having submitted to reproof.(m) This mode of con- 
fession is stated by Cyprian to have been practised in the an- 
cient Church. ‘They repent (says he) in due time; and 
afterwards they come to confession; and by the imposition of 
the hands of the bishop and clergy, they receive a right to 
communion.” ‘The Scripture knows nothing of any other 
method or form of confession; and it is not our province to 
impose new chains on men’s consciences, which Christ most 
strictly forbids to reduce under the yoke of bondage. But 
that the sheep should present themselves to their pastor, when- 
ever they desire to partake of the sacred supper, I am so far 
from opposing, that I earnestly wish it were universally ob- 
served. For those who experience distress of conscience may 
receive singular benefit from such an interview ; and those who 
require to be admonished, will thus afford an opportunity for 
admonitions; provided that care be always taken to guard 
against tyranny and superstition. 

XIV. The power of the keys is exercised in these three 
kinds of confession: either when the whole church implores 
pardon by a solemn acknowledgment of its transgressions; or 
when an individual, who, by any remarkable crime, has occa- 
sioned a common offence, declares his repentance ; or when he 
who needs the assistance of the minister on account of the dis- 
quietude of his conscience, discloses his infirmity to him. The 
removal of an offence proceeds on a different principle ; because, 
though it is also designed to produce peace of conscience, yet 
the principal end is, that animosity may be destroyed, and the 
minds of men united in the bonds of peace. But this advan- 
tage, which I have mentioned, is by no means to be. despised, 
that we may confess our sins with the greater readiness. For, 
when the whole church stands, as it were, before the tribunal 
of God, when they confess themselves guilty, and have no 
refuge but in the Divine mercy, —it is no mean or trivial con- 
solation to have Christ’s ambassador present, furnished with 
the mandate of reconciliation, by whom they may have their 
absolution pronounced. Here the usefulness of the keys is 
deservedly celebrated, when this embassy is rightly performed, 


(m) 2 Cor. ii. 6. 


574 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book m1, 


with-becoming order and reverence. So, when he who had, 
in some measure, alienated himself from the Church, is par- 
doned and restored to the unity of the brethren, how great a 
blessing does he experience in knowing himself to be forgiven 
by them, to whom Christ has said, ‘‘ Whose soever sins ye shall 
remit on earth, they shall be remitted in heaven!” (2) Nor 
is private absolution less efficacious or beneficial, when it is 
requested by those who need a particular remedy for the relief 
of their infirmities. For it frequently happens, that he -who 
hears the general promises, which are addressed to the whole 
congregation of believers, nevertheless remains in some sus- 
pense, and his mind is still disquieted with doubts of the for- 
giveness of his sins. ‘The same person, if he discloses to his 
pastor the secret distress of his mind, and hears this language 
of the gospel particularly directed to him, ‘“ Be of good cheer; 
thy sins be forgiven thee,’ (0) will encourage his mind to an 
assurance, and will be liberated from that trepidation with 
which he was before disturbed. But when we are treating of 
the keys, we must always be cautious not to dream of any 
power distinct from the preaching of the gospel. This subject 
will again be discussed more fully in another place, where we 
shall have to treat of the government of the Church; and there 
we shall see, that all the power of binding and loosing, which 
Christ has conferred on the Church, is inseparable from the 
word. But this is chiefly applicable to the ministry of the 
keys, the whole force and meaning of which. consist in this, 
that the grace of the gospel should be confirmed and sealed, as 
it were, to the minds of the faithful, in public as well as private, 
by those whom the Lord has ordained to this office; which 
cannot be done but by preaching alone. . 

XV. But what is the doctrine of the: Romish divines? 
They maintain, that all persons, of both sexes, as soon as they 
shall have arrived at years of discretion, should, once at least in 
every year, confess all their sins to their own priest; that there 
is no remission of sin, unless they have firmly resolved to con- 
fess it; that unless they fulfil this resolution, when opportunity 
offers, there is no admittance for them into Paradise; and, 
moreover, that the priest has the power of the keys, with which 
he may loose the sinner or bind him; because Christ has not 
said in vain, ‘‘ Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be 
bound in heaven.’”’?(p) But concerning this power, they have 
obstinate contentions among themselves. Some say, that there 
is essentially but one key, namely, the power of binding and 
loosing ; that knowledge is required, indeed, for the good use 
of it, but that it is only like an accessary, not an essential con- 


(n) Matt. xviii. 18.. John xx. 23. (0) Matt. ix. 2. (p) Matt. xviii. 18. 


CHAP. Iv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 575 


comitant. Others, perceiving this to be too unlimited a license, 
have mentioned two keys, discretion and power. Others, again, 
observing that the wickedness of the priests was restrained by 
such moderation, have invented other keys, an authority of 
discerning which they might use in pronouncing decisions ; 
and.a power, which they might exert in executing their sen- 
tences; with knowledge, to assist as acounsellor. But they 
venture not to explain this binding and loosing simply to mean, 
forgiving and obliterating sins; because they hear the Lord 
proclaiming by the prophet, ‘I am the Lord, and beside me 
there is no Saviour. I, even I, am he which blotteth out thy 
transgressions.” (¢) But they say, that it belongs to the priest 
to pronounce who are bound or loosed, and to declare whose 
sins are remitted or retained ; and that he declares it, either by 
confession, when he absolves and retains sins; or by his sen- 
tence, when he excommunicates, and when he receives to the’ 
communion of the sacraments. Lastly, when they perceive 
that they are not yet extricated from this difficulty, but that it 
may always be objected, that their priests frequently bind and 
loose improper: persons, who are not therefore bound or loosed 
in heaven, —as their last resource, they reply, that the commis- 
sion of the keys must be understood with some limitation, 
Christ having promised, that the sentence of the priest, which 
has been justly delivered, according to the merits of the per- 
sons bound or loosed, shall be confirmed at his tribunal. They 
add also, that these keys were given by Christ to all priests, 
who receive them from the bishops on their promotion to the 
sacerdotal office; but that the free use of them belongs only 
to those who exercise ecclesiastical functions; that the keys 
themselves remain, indeed, with the excommunicated or sus- 
pended ones, but that they are rusty and disused. And those 
who advance these things may justly be considered modest 
and sober, in comparison with others, who, on a new anvil, 
have fabricated new keys, with which they tell us the trea- 
sure of the Church is locked up; which we shall examine in 
the proper place. 

XVI. I shall briefly reply to each of these things; though 
without noticing, at present, the justice or injustice with 
which they bind the souls of the faithful by their laws; as 
that will be considered in due order. But when they impose 
a law respecting the enumeration of all sins; when they deny 
that sin is forgiven, but on condition that a firm resolution has 
been formed to confess it; when they say that there remains 
no entrance into Paradise, if the opportunity of confession has 
been neglected,—this is altogether intolerable. Must all sins 


6 


(q) Isaiah xliii. 11, 25. 


576 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 11 


be enumerated? David, who (I suppose) had often meditated 
the confession of his sins, nevertheless exclaimed, “‘ Who can 
understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults. ” (7) 
And in another place: ‘Mine iniquities are gone over mine 
head ; as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.” (s) He had 
just apprehensions of the vast abyss of our sins, of the numerous 
species of our crimes, of the many heads this monster bore, and 
the long tail it drew after it. Therefore he attempted not to de- 
tail his transgressions, but from the abyss of his distresses cried 
to the Lord, ‘‘I am afflicted and ready to die ; my spirit is over- 
whelmed within me; I dwell in darkness, as those that have 
been long dead ;”’ (¢) ‘‘ the sorrows of death compassed me, and 
the pains of hell gat hold upon me;”(v) ‘Isink in deep 
mire; deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink.’ (w) 
Who can now think of recounting his sins, when he sees that 
‘David was unable to enter on an enumeration of his? 

XVII. The souls of those who have been affected with any 
discoveries of God, have been most cruelly tormented by this 
fatal delusion. First, they called themselves to an account; 
they divided sins into boughs, branches, twigs, and leaves, 
according to the distinctions of these confessors: then they ex- 
amined the qualities, quantities, and circumstances; and the 
business made some little’ progress. But, when they had ad- 
vanced further, they were surrounded on all sides by the sea 
and the sky, no port, no haven in prospect; the more they had 
passed over, the greater mass was always accumulating on their 
view ; they beheld, as it were, lofty mountains rising before 
them, and no time or labour seemed to encourage the least 
hope of escaping. 'Thus they remained in extreme distress, 
and after all, found it terminate in nothing but despair. ‘Then 
the remedy applied by those cruel murderers, to alleviate the 
wounds which they had made, was, that every one should do 
to the uttermost of hisability. But new cares again disturbed, 
and new agonies again excruciated, these miserable souls: I 
have not devoted sufficient time; I have not applied with pro- © 
per diligence; I have omitted many things through negligence, 
and the forgetfulness which arises from negligence is inexcusa- 
ble. ‘'T’o assuage such pains, other remedies were now added: 
Repent of your negligence; if it be not too great, it will be 
forgiven. But all these things cannot heal the wound; nor do 
they act as alleviations of the malady, but rather as poisons 
concealed in honey, that they may not by their harshness of- 
fend at the first taste, but may penetrate into the inmost parts 
before they are perceived. ‘This terrible injunction, therefore, 
is always pursuing them and resounding in their ears: ‘“* Confess ~ 


(r) Psalm xix. 12. (s) Psalm Ixxxviii. 15. (t) Psalm cxhii. 3,4. * 
(v) Psalm exvi. 3 (w) Psalm lxix. 2, 14. 


CHAP. Iv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 517 


all your sins; ’’ nor can that terror be appeased but by some 
certain consolation. Here let the reader consider the possibi- 
lity of taking an account of the actions of a whole year, and 
selecting the sins of every day; since experience convinces 
every man that, when at evening he comes to examine the de- 
linguencies of only one day, his memory is confounded by 
their great multitude and variety. I speak not of stupid hy- 
pocrites, who, if they have noticed three or four gross sins, 
imagine they have discharged their duty ; but of the true wor- 
shippers of God, who, when they find themselves overwhelmed 
with the examination they have made, conclude, in the lan- 
guage of John, “If our heart condemn us, God is greater than 
our heart.” (2) They tremble, therefore, before that Judge, 
whose knowledge far exceeds our apprehension. 

XVII. The acquiescence of a great part of the world in 
such soothing arts, employed to temper this mortal poison, 
was not indulged from a belief that God was satisfied, or be- 
cause they were altogether satisfied themselves; but that, like 
mariners, having cast anchor in the midst of the sea, they 
might enjoy a short respite from the toils of navigation, or like 
a fatigued and fainting traveller, might lie down in the road. 
I shall not take much trouble to establish this point: for every 
man may be his own witness of it. I will briefly state the 
nature of this law. First, it is absolutely impracticable ; there- 
fore it can only destroy, condemn, confound, and precipitate 
into ruin and despair. In the next place, it diverts sinners 
from a true sense of their sins, and makes them hypocrites, 
ignorant both of God and themselves. For while they are 
wholly employed in enumerating their sins, they forget, in the 
-mean time, that latent source of vices, their secret iniquities 
and inward pollutions, a knowledge of which is above all things 
necessary to a consideration of their misery. But the most 
certain rule of confession is to acknowledge and confess the 
abyss of our guilt to be vast beyond all our comprehension. 
The publican’s confession appears to have been composed ac- 
cording to this rule — ‘‘ God be merciful to me a sinner.” (y) 
As though he had said, ‘‘ All that I am is utterly sinful; I can- 
not reach the magnitude of my sins, either with my tongue or 
with my mind; let the abyss of thy mercy swallow up this 
abyss of sin.” But you will say, Are not particular sins, then, 
to be confessed? Is no confession accepted by God unless it be 
comprised in these precise words, ‘‘I ama sinner?” . I reply, 
that we should rather endeavour, as far as we possibly can, to 
pour out our whole heart before the Lord; and not only con- 
fess ourselves sinners in a single expression, but truly and 


(z) 1 John iii. 20. (y) Luke xvii. 13. 
VoL. I. 73 


578 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooxK 111. 


cordially acknowledge ourselves such; and consider in all our 
reflections, how great and various is the pollution of sin; not 
only that we are unclean, but the nature and extent of our 
impurity ; not only that we are debtors, but the magnitude. and 
number of the debts with which we are burdened ; not only 
that we are wounded, but what a multitude of mortal wounds — 
we have received. Yet when the sinner has wholly un- 
bosomed himself before God in this acknowledgment, let him 
seriously and sincerely reflect, that more sins still remain, and 
that the secret recesses of his guilt are too deep to be entirely 
disclosed. And therefore let him exclaim with Dav'd, ‘‘ Who 
can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret 
faults.” (w) Now, when they affirm, that sins are not forgiven 
without a strong resolution having been formed to confess 
them, and that the gate of Paradise is shut against him who 
has neglected an opportunity afforded him of confessing, — far 
be it from us to make them such a concession. For there is 
no other remission of sins now than there always has been. 
Among all those who are said to have obtained remission of 
sins from Christ, none are said to have made a confession in 
the ear of any priest. Nor, indeed, was it possible for them 
thus to confess, when there were no confessionary priests, and — 
confession itself was altogether unknown. And this confession 
was unheard of for many ages after, during which sins were 
forgiven without this condition. But, not to debate any 
longer as respecting a doubtful point, ‘‘ the word of God which 
abideth for ever,’ (x) is perfectly clear: “If the wicked will 
turn from all his sins, all his transgressions that he hath com- 
mitted, they shall not be mentioned unto him.” (y) He who 
presumes to make any addition to this declaration, does not bind 
sins, but limits the mercy of God. When they contend that 
judgment cannot be given without a trial of the cause, we 
are prepared with an answer —that they are guilty of arrogant 
presumption in creating themselves judges. And it is surpri- 
sing that they so securely fabricate principles for themselves, 
which no man of sound understanding will admit. They 
boast that the office of binding and loosing is committed to 
them, as though it were a kind of jurisdiction annexed to ex- 
amination. ‘That the apostles were strangers to this authority, 
their whole doctrine proclaims; and to know certainly whether 
the sinner be loosed, belongs not to the priest, but to Him of 
whom absolution is implored; since the priest who hears the 
confession, can never know whether the enumeration of sins 
be true and perfect. Thus there would be no absolution, but 
what must be restricted to the words of the person to be 


(w) Psalm xix. 12. (xz) 1 Peter i. 23. (y) Ezek. xviii. 21, 22. 


CHAP. Iv.| CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 579 


judged. Besides, the loosing of sins depends entirely on faith 
and repentance; which both elude the knowledge of man, 
when sentence is to be given respecting another. It follows, 
therefore, that the certainty of binding and loosing is not sub- 
ject to the decision of an earthly judge; because a minister, in 
the legitimate execution of his office, can pronounce only a 
conditional absolution ; but that the declaration, “‘ Whose soever 
sins ye remit, they are remitted,’ is spoken for the sake of 
sinners, to preclude every doubt that the pardon, which is 
promised according to the command and word of God, will be 
ratified in heaven. | 

XIX. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, if we condemn 
and desire the total removal of this auricular confession —a 
thing so pestilent, and in so many respects injurious to the 
Church. Even if it were a thing abstractedly indifferent, yet, 
since it is of no use or benefit, but has occasioned so much 
impiety, sacrilege, and error, — who can refuse to admit, that it 
ought to be immediately abolished? 'They mention, indeed, 
some uses, which they boast of as very beneficial ; but these 
are mere fictions, or productive of no advantage whatever. One 
circumstance they state as a peculiar recommendation, that 
the shame of the person who confesses is a grievous punish- 
ment, by which the sinner is rendered more cautious in future, 
and prevents the vengeance of God by punishing himself. As 
though we humble not a man with a sufficient degree of 
shame, when we summon him to the supreme tribunal of hea- 
ven —to the cognizance of God! It is a wonderful advantage, 
indeed, if we cease to sin through a shame of one man, but are 
never ashamed of having God fora witness of our evil con- 
science! ‘Though this very notion is utterly false; for it is 
universally observable, that nothing produces a greater confi- 
dence or licentiousness in sinning, than the idea entertained by 
some men, after they have made their confession to a priest, that 
they may ‘ wipe their mouth and say, I have done no wicked- 
ness.” (z) And they not only become more presumptuous in 
their sins throughout the'’year, but, having no concern about 
confession for the rest of the year, they never aspire after God, 
they never retire into themselves, but accumulate sins upon sins, 
till they disembogue them, as they imagine, all at once. But 
when they have done this, they conceive themselves to be exone- 
rated of their burden, and to have transferred from God the judg- 
ment they have conferred on the priest ; and that they have de- 
prived God of remembrance, by the information they have com- 
municated to the priest. Besides, who rejoices to see the day 
of confession approaching ? Who goes to confess with alacrity 
of heart ; and does not rather come with unwillingness and re- 


(z) Prov. xxx. 20. 


580 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book mm 


luctance, as though he were forcibly dragged to a prison; ex- 
cept perhaps the priests, who pleasantly entertain themselves 
with mutual narrations of their exploits, as with humorous anec- 
dotes? I will not soil much paper by relating the monstrous 
abominations with which auricular confession abounds. [| 
only remark, if that holy man was not guilty of indiscretion, 
who, on account of one rumour of fornication, banished con- 
fession from his church, or rather from the memory of his 
people, —we are thus reminded of what ought to be done in 
the present day, when rapes, adulteries, incests, and seductions 
exceed all enumeration. 

XX. As the advocates of confession plead the power of the 
keys, and rest upon it all the merits of their cause, we must 
examine the weight that is due to this argument. Are the 
keys, then, (say they,) given without any reason? Is it with- 
out any cause that it is said, ‘‘ Whatsoever ye shall loose on 
earth, shall be loosed in heaven?” (a) Do we, then, frustrate 
the declaration of Christ? I reply, that there was an important 
reason why the keys should be given; as I have already stated, 
and shall again more explicitly show, when I come to treat of 
excommunication. But what if I refute the whole of their pre- 
tensions with one argument, that their priests are not vicars, or | 
successors of the apostles? But this, also, will be discussed in 
another place. Now, they set up, as their principal defence; an 
engine by which their whole structure may be completely demo- 
lished. For Christ never conferred on his apostles the power of 
binding and loosing, till after he had given them the Holy Ghost. 
I deny, therefore, that.the power of the keys belongs to any, 
‘who have not previously received the Holy Ghost. I deny 
that any one can use the keys, unless the Spirit guide and 
instruct him, and direct him how he ought to act. They im- 
pertinently pretend, that they have the Holy Ghost; but in 
reality they deny it; unless perhaps they imagine, as they 
certainly do, that the Holy Ghost is a useless and worthless 
thing ; but they will not be believed. By this weapon they are 
completely vanquished. Of whatever door they pretend to 
have the key, they should always be asked, whether they have 
the Holy Ghost, who is the arbiter and governor of the keys. 
If they reply in the affirmative, they must be questioned again, 
whether it be possible for the Holy Ghost to err. ‘This they 
will not dare expressly to avow, though they obliquely insi- 
nuate it in their doctrine.. We may justly infer, therefore, that 
no priests have the power of the keys, who, without discrimi- 
nation, frequently loose what the Lord had designed to be 
bound, and bind what he had commanded to be loosed. 

X XI. When they find themselves convinced, by evident - 


(a) Matt. xviii. 18. 


CHAP. Iv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. | 581 


experience, that they promiscuously loose and bind the worthy 
and the unworthy, they arrogate to themselves the power- 
without knowledge. And though they dare not deny that 
knowledge is requisite to a good use of it, yet they tell us, 
that the power itself is committed to improper dispensers of it. 
But this is the power — ‘‘ Whatsoever thou bindest or loosest on 
earth, shall be bound or loosed in heaven.” Either the promise 
of Christ must be false, or the binding and loosing is rightiy 
performed by those who are endued with this power. Nor is 
there any room for them to quibble, that the declaration of 
Christ is limited according to. the merits of the person that is 
bound or loosed. We also acknowledge, that none can be 
bound or loosed, but such as are worthy to be bound or loosed. 
But the preachers of the gospel, and the Church, have the 
word as the standard of this worthiness. In this word, the 
ministers of the gospel may promise to all remission of sins in 
Christ through faith; they may denounce damnation against 
all and upon all who receive not Christ. In this word, the 
Church pronounces, that fornicators, adulterers, thieves, mur- 
derers, misers, and extortioners, have no part in the kingdom 
of God; and binds such with the firmest bonds. In the same 
word, the Church looses and comforts those who repent. (0) 
But what kind of power will it be, not to know what ought to 
be bound or loosed? and not to be able to bind or loose with- . 
out this knowledge? Why, then, do they say, that they 
absolve by the authority committed to them, when their abso- 
lution is uncertain? Why should we concern ourselves about 
this imaginary power, if it be quite useless? But I have al- 
ready ascertained, either that it has no existence, or that it is 
too uncertain to be considered of any value. For, as they con-- 
fess that there are many of the priests who make no right use 
of the keys, and that the power has no efficacy without a legi- 
timate use of it, who will assure me, that he by whom I am 
loosed is a good dispenser of the keys? But if he be a bad 
one, what else does he possess but this frivolous dispensation 
of them: “ What ought to be bound or loosed in you, I know 
uot, since I am destitute of the proper use of the keys; but if 
you deserve it, labsolve you?’’? But as much as this might be 
done, I will not say by a layman, (since they could not hear 
that with any patience,) but by a Turk or a devil. For it is 
equivalent to saying, “I have not the word of God, which is 
the certain rule of loosing; but 1 am invested with authority 
to absolve you, on condition that your merits deserve it.” We 
see, then, what they intended, when they defined the keys to 
be an authority of discerning, and a power of executing, at- 
tended with knowledge as a counsellor, to promote the good 


(b) 1 Cor. vi. 9—11. 


582, INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 11 


use. The truth is, that they wished to reign according to 
their own licentious inclinations, independently of God and his 
word. 

XXII. If it be objected, that the legitimate ministers of 
Christ will be equally perplexed in their office, since the ab- 
solution, which depends on faith, will ever be doubtful, and 
that therefore sinners will have but a slight consolation, or 
none at all, since the minister himself, who is not a competent 
judge of their faith, is not certain of their absolution, — we are 
prepared with an answer. ‘They say, that no sins are remitted 
by the priest, but those which fall under his cognizance ; thus, 
according to them, remission depends on the judgment of the 
priest ; and unless he sagaciously discerns who are worthy of 
pardon, the whole transaction is frivolous and useless. In 
short, the power of which they speak is a jurisdiction annexed 
to examination, to which pardon and absolution are restricted. 
In this statement, we find no firm footing, but rather a bottom- 
less abyss; for where the confession is deficient, the hope of 
pardon is also imperfect ; in the next place, the priest himself 
must necessarily remain in suspense, while he is ignorant 
whether the sinner faithfully enumerates all his crimes; lastly, 
such is the ignorance and inexperience of priests, that the 
majority of them are no more qualified for the exercise of this 
office, than a shoemaker for cultivating the ground; and 
almost all the rest ought justly to be suspicious of themselves. 
Hence, then, the perplexity and doubtfulness of the Papal abso- 
lution, because they maintain it to be founded on the person 
of the priest; and not only so, but on his knowledge, so that 
he can only judge of what he hears, examines, and ascertains. 
Now, should any one inquire of these good doctors, whether a 
sinner be reconciled to God on the remission of part of his sins, 
I know not what answer they can give, without being con- 
strained to acknowledge the inefficacy of whatever the priest 
may pronounce concerning the remission of sins which he has 
heard enumerated, as long as the guilt of others still remains. 
What a pernicious anxiety must oppress the conscience of the 
person that confesses, appears from this consideration, that while 
he relies on the discretion of the priest, (as they express them-. 
selves,) he decides nothing by the word of God. ‘The doc- 
trine maintained by us, is perfectly free from all these absurdi- 
ties. For absolution is conditional, in such a way, that the 
sinner may be confident that God is propitious to him, provided 
he sincerely seeks an atonement in the sacrifice of Christ, and 
relies upon the grace offered to him. Thus it is impossible for 
him to err, who, according to his duty as a preacher, promul- 
gates what he has been taught by the Divine word; and the 

sipner may receive a certain and clear absolution, simply on 


CHAP. Iv | CHRISTIAN RELIGION, 583 


condition of embracing the grace of Christ, according to that 
general rule of our Lord himself, which has been impiously 
despised among the Papists — ‘“ According to your faith be it 
unto you.” (c) 

XXIII. Their absurd confusion of the clear representations 
of the Scripture concerning the power of the keys, I have 
promised to expose in another place; and a more suitable op- 
portunity will present itself, in discussing the government of 
the Church. But let the reader remember, that they prepos- 
terously pervert to auricular and secret confession, passages 
which are spoken by Christ, partly of the preaching of the gos- 
pel, and partly of excommunication. Wherefore, when they 
object that the power of loosing was committed to the apostles, 
which is now exercised by the priests in remitting the sins con- 
fessed to them, it is evidently an assumption of a false and frivo- 
‘lous principle ; for the absolution consequent on faith, is nothing 
but adeclaration of pardon taken from the gracious promise 
of the gospel; but the other absolution, which depends on ec- 
clesiastical discipline, relates not to secret sins, but is rather for 
the sake of example, that the public offence of the Church 
may be removed. ‘They rake together testimonies from every 
quarter, to prove, that it is not sufficient to make a confession 
of sins to God, or to laymen, unless they are likewise submitted 
to the cognizance of a priest; but they ought to be ashamed 
of such a disgusting employment. For, if the ancient fathers 
sometimes persuade sinners to disburden themselves to their own 
pastor, it'cannot be understood of a particular enumeration of 
sins, which was not then practised. Moreover, Lombard and 
others of the same class have been so unfair, that they appear to 
have designedly consulted spurious books, in order to use them 
as a pretext to deceive the unwary. ‘They do, indeed, proper- 
ly acknowledge, that since loosing always accompanies repent- 
ance, there really remains no bond where any one has experi- 
enced repentance, although he may not yet have made a con- 
fession; and, therefore, that then the priest does not so much 
remit sins, as pronounce and declare them to be remitted. 
Though in the word declare they insinuate a gross error, sub- 
stituting a ceremony in the place of instruction ; but by adding, 
that he who had already obtained pardon before* God, is ab- 
solved in the view of the Church, they unseasonably apply to 
the particular use of every individual, what we have- already 
asserted to have been appointed as a part of the common disci- 
pline of the Church, when the offence of some great and 
notorious crime requires to be removed. But they presently 
corrupt and destroy all the moderation they had observed, by 
adding another mode of remission, that is, with an injunction 


(c) Matt. ix. 29. 


584 | INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 11, 


of punishment and satisfaction; by which they arrogantly as- 
cribe to their priests the power of dividing into two parts what 
God has every where promised as complete. For, as he simply 
requires repentance and faith, this partition or exception is an 
evident sacrilege. For it is just as if the priest, sustaining the 
character of a tribune, should interpose his veto, and not sutfer 
God of his mere goodness to receive any one into favour, un- 
less he had lain prostrate before the tribunitial seat, and there 
been punished. 

XXIV. The whole argument comes to this — that if they 
will represent God as the Antaon of this fictitious confession, it 
is a full proof of their error; for I have pointed out their fallae’ 
cies in the few passages which they quote. But since it is evi- 
dent that this is a law of human imposition, I assert that it is 
also tyrannical and injurious to God, who binds the consciences 
of men by his word, and whose will it is that they should be 
free from the authority of men. Now, when they prescribe 
as a necessary prerequisite to pardon that which God has chosen — 
should be free, I maintain that it is an intolerable sacrilege ; 
for nothing is more peculiarly the prerogative of God than the 
remission of sins, in which our salvation consists. I have 
moreover proved, that this tyranny was not introduced till the 
world was oppressed with the rudest barbarism. I have like- 
wise shown that it is a pestilent law, because, if wretched 
souls are affected with the fear of God, it precipitates them mto 
despair; or if they are in a state of careless security, it soothes 
them with vain flatteries, and renders them still more imsensi- 
ble. Lastly, I have stated, that all the mitigations which they 
add, have no other tendency than to perplex, obscure, and cor-— 
rupt the pure doctrine, and to conceal their impieties under 
false and illusive colours. 

XXV. The third place in repentance they assign to satisfac- 
tion ; all their jargon concerning which may be overturned 19 
one word. ‘They say, that it is not sufficient for a penitent to 
abstain from his former sins, and to change his morals for the 
better, unless he make satisfaction to God for the crimes which 
he has committed; and that there are many helps by which 
we may redeem sins, such as tears, fastings, oblations, and 
works of charity ; that by these the Lord is to be propitiated, 
by these our debts are to be paid to the Divine justice, by. 
these we must compensate for the guilt of our sins, by these 
we must merit pardon; for that though, in the plenitude of 
his mercy, he has remitted our sins, yet, in the discipline of 
Justice, he retains the punishment, and that this is the punish- 
ment which must be redeemed by satesfactions. All that they 
say, however, comes to this conclusion — that we obtain the 
pardon of our transgressions from the mercy of God, but that 


CHAP. Iv.| CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 585 


it is by the intervention of the merit of works, by which the 
evil of our sins must be compensated, that the Divine justice 
may receive the satisfaction which is due to it. 'T'o such false- 
hoods I oppose the gratuitous remission of sins, than which 
there is nothing more clearly revealed in the Scripture. In 
the first place, what is remission, but a gift of mere liberality ? 
For the creditor is not said to forgive, who testifies by a receipt 
that the debt has been paid, but he who, without any payment, 
merely through his beneficence, voluntarily cancels the obliga- 
tion. In the next place, why is this said to be free, but to 
preclude every idea of satisfaction? With what confidence, 
then, can they still set up their satisfactions, which are over- 
thrown by such a mighty thunderbolt? But when the Lord 
proclaims by Isaiah, ‘‘ 1, even I, am he that-blotteth out thy 
transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy 
sins,” (d) does he not evidently declare, that he derives the 
cause and foundation of forgiveness merely from his own good- 
ness? Besides, while the whole Scripture bears testimony to 
Christ, that ‘remission of sins ” is to be ‘received through his 
name,” (e) does it not exclude all other names? How, then, 
do they teach, that it is received through the name of satisfac- 
tions? Nor can they deny that they ascribe this to satisfac- 
tions, although they call their intervention subsidiary. For 
when the Scripture states it to be “through the name of 
Christ,” it signifies, that we bring nothing, that we plead 
nothing, of our own, but rely solely on the mediation of 
Christ ; as Paul, after affirming, ‘that God was in Christ re- 
conciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses 
unto them,” immediately adds the method and nature of it, 
“for he hath made him, who knew no sin, to be sin for 
us.” (f) , 

XXVI. But such is their perverseness, they reply that both 
remission of sins and reconciliation are obtained at once, when 
in baptism we are received into the favour of God, through 
Christ; that if we fall after baptism, we are to be raised up 
again by satisfactions ;.and that the blood of Christ avails 
us nothing, any further than it is dispensed by the keys of the 
Church. I am not speaking of a doubtful point, for they have 
betrayed their impurity in the most explicit terms; and this 
is the case not only of two or three, but of all the school- 
men. For their master, Lombard, after having confessed that, 
according to the doctrine of Peter, Christ suffered the punish- 
ment of sins on the cross, (g) immediately corrects that senti- 
ment by the addition of the following exception: that all 
the temporal punishments of sins are remitted in baptism; but 

(d) Isaiah xliii. 25. (f) 2 Cor. v.19, 21. 
(e) Acts x. 43, (g) 1 Peter ii. 24. 
VOL. I. 74 


586 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK II. 


that after baptism they are diminished by means of repentance, 
so that our repentance cooperates with the cross of Christ. 
But John speaks a very different language: ‘‘If any man sin, 
we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the right- 
eous; and he is the propitiation for our sins: I write unto 
you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for 
his name’s sake.”*h) He certainly addresses believers, and 
when he exhibits Christ to them as the propitiation for sins, 
proves that there is no other satisfaction by which our offended 
God may be propitiated or appeased. He says not, God was 
once reconciled to you by Christ, now seek some other means}; 
but represents him as a perpetual advocate, who by his interces- 
sion restores us to the Father’s favour for ever, and as a per- 
petual propitiation by which our sins are expiated. For this 
is perpetually true, that was declared by the other John, 
‘‘ Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the 
world.” (7) He takes them away himself, I say, and no other; 
that is, since he alone is the Lamb of God. he alone is the 
oblation, the expiation, the satisfaction for sins. For the right 
and power to forgive being the peculiar prerogative of the Fa- 
ther, as distinguished from the Son, as we have already seen, 
Christ is here represented in another capacity, since by trans- 
ferring to himself the punishment we deserved, he has oblite- 
rated our guilt before the throne of God. Whence it follows, 
that we shall not be partakers of the atonement of Christ in 
any other way, unless he remain in the exclusive possession of 
that honour, which they unjustly assume to themselves who 
endeavour to appease God by satisfactions of their own. 
XXVITI. And here two things demand our consideration — 
that the honour, which belongs to Christ, should be preserved 
to him entire and undiminished ; and that consciences assured 
of the pardon of their sins, should have peace with God. 
Isaiah says, ‘The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all,” 
and ‘‘ With his stripes we are healed.” (4) Peter, repeating 
the same truth in different words, says, that Christ ‘ bare our 
sins in his own body on the tree.’ (7) Paul informs us, that 
‘sin was condemned in the flesh,” (mm) when “Christ was 
made sin for us;”’ (2) that is, that the power and curse of sin 


were destroyed in his flesh, when he was given as a victim, to 


sustain the whole load of our sins, with their curse and execra- 
tions, with the dreadful judgment of God, and the condemna- 
tion of death. We cannot here listen to those foolish fictions ; 
that after the initial purgation or baptism, none of us can have 
any further experience of the efficacy of the sufferings of 


(kh) 1 John ii. 1, 2, 12. (1) 1 Peter ii, 24. 
(z) John i. 29. (m) Rom. viii. 3. ’ 
(k) Isaiah wii. 5, 6. (n) 2 Cor. vy. 21. Gal. ii. 13. 


CHAP. Iv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 587 


Christ, than in proportion to a satisfactory repentance. But 
whenever we have fallen, the Scripture recalls us to the satis- 
faction of Christ alone.” Now, review their, pestilent follies ; 
‘that the grace of God operates alone in the first remission of 
sins; but that if we afterwards fall, our works codperate with 
it in the impetration of a second pardon.”’ If these things be 
admitted, does Christ remain exclusively possessed of what we 
have before attributed to him? How immensely wide is the 
difference between these positions —that our iniquities are laid 
on Christ to be expiated by him, and that they are expiated by 
our own works! that Christ is the propitiation for our sins, and 
that God must be propitiated by works! But with respect to 
pacifying the conscience, what peace will it afford any one, to 
hear that sins are redeemed by satisfactions? When will he be, 
assured of the accomplishment of satisfaction? ‘Therefore he 
will always doubt whether God be propitious to him, he will 
always be in a state of fluctuation and terror. For those who 
content themselves with trivial satisfactions, have too contemp- 
tuous sentiments of the judgment of God, and reflect very 
little on the vast evil of sin, as we shall elsewhere observe. 
But though we should allow them to expiate some sins by a 
proper satisfaction, yet what will they do when they are over- 
whelmed with so many sins, that to make adequate satisfac- 
tions for them, even a hundred lives entirely devoted to it 
could not possibly be sufficient? Besides, all the passages in 
which remission of sins is declared, are not addressed to cate- 
chumens, for persons not yet baptized,] but to the regenerated 
sons of God, and those who have been long nurtured in the 
bosom of the Church. That embassy which Paul so splen- 
didly extols, ‘‘ We pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled 
to God,” (0) is directed not to strangers, but to those who had 
already been regenerated. But, dismissing all satisfactions, he 
sends them to the cross of Christ. ‘Thus, when he writes to 
the Colossians, that ‘‘ Christ had made peace by the blood of 
his cross, and reconciled all things both in earth and in hea- 
ven,’ (p) he restricts not this to the moment of our reception 
into the Church, but extends it through our whole course; as 
is evident from the context, where he says that believers ‘‘ have 
redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” 
But it is unnecessary to accumulate more passages, which are 
frequently occurring. 

XXVIII. Here they take refuge in a foolish distinction, 
that some sins are venial, and some mortal; that a great satis- 
faction is due for mortal sins; but that those which are venial 
are purged away by easier remedies, by the Lord’s prayer, the 


(0) 2 Cor. v. 20. (p) Col. i. 20. 


588 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book It, 


aspersion of holy water, and the absolution of the mass. ‘Thus 
they sport and trifle with God. But though they are inces- 
santly talking of venial and mortal sifs, yet they have never 
been able to discriminate one from the other, except by mak- 
ing impiety and impurity of heart a venial sin. But we main- 
tain, according to the doctrine of the Scripture, the only 
standard of righteousness and sin, that ‘the wages of sin is 
death,” and “the soul that sinneth, it shall die ;” (q) but that 
the sins of believers are venial, not because they are not de- 
serving of death, but because, through the mercy of God, 
“there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ 
Jesus ;”’ (7) because they are not imputed to them, but oblitera- 
ted by a pardon. I know their unjust calumnies against this 
doctrine of ours; they assert it to be the Stoical paradox 
concerning the equality of sins; .but they will easily be refuted 
out of their own lips. For I ask, whether among those very 
sins which they confess to be mortal, they do not acknow- 
ledge one to be greater or less than another? It does not, there- 
fore, immediately follow, that sins are equal because they are 
alike mortal. Since the Scripture declares that the wages of 
sin is death, that obedience to the law is the way of life, and 
the transgression of it death, they cannot evade this decision. 
What end, then, will they find to satisfactions in so great an 
accumulation of sins? If it be the business of one day to sa- 
tisfy for one sin, while they are employed in that, they involve 
themselves in more; for the most righteous man cannot pass a 
single day without falling several times. While they shall be 
preparing themselves to make satisfaction for these, they will 
accumulate a numerous, or rather an innumerable multitude. 
Now, all confidence in satisfaction is cut off: on what do they 
depend? How do they still presume to think of making satis- 
faction ? 

X XIX. They endeavour to extricate themselves from this 
difficulty, but without success. They invent a distinction 
between the guilt and the punishment; and acknowledge that 
the guilt is forgiven by the Divine mercy, but maintain, that 
after the remission of the guilt, there still remains the punish- 
ment, which the Divine justice requires to be suffered ; and, 
therefore, that satisfactions properly relate to the remission of 
the punishment. What desultory levity is this! Now, they 
confess that remission of guilt is proposed as gratuitous, which 
they are continually teaching men to merit by prayers and 
tears, and other preparations of various kinds. But every thing 
delivered in the Scripture concerning remission of sins is dia- 
metrically opposite to this distinction. And though I think I 
have fully established this point already, I will subjoin some 


(q) Rom. vi. 23. Ezek. xviii. 20. (r) Rom. viii. 1. 


CHAP. Iv. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 589 


additional testimonies, by which our opponents will be so much 
embarrassed, as, notwithstanding all their serpentine lubricity, to 
be totally unable ever to extricate themselves. ‘This is the 
hnew.covenant,” which God has made with us in Christ, “that 
he will not remember our iniquities.” (s) The import of these 
expressions we learn from another prophet, by whom the Lord 
says, ‘“‘ When the righteous turneth away from his righteous- 
ness, all his righteousness that he hath done shall not be men- 
tioned. When the wicked man turneth away from his wick- 
edness, he shall surely live, he shall not die.” (¢) ‘Not to 
mention righteousness,” signifies, not to notice it so as to 
reward it; and “not to remember sins,” is, not to inflict 
punishment for them. ‘This is expressed in other passages by 
the following phrases: to “cast behind the back,” to ‘blot 
out as a cloud,” to.‘‘cast into the depths of the sea,” “ not to 
impute,”’ to cover.” (uw) These forms of expression would 
clearly convey to us the sense of the Holy Spirit, if we attend-: 
ed to them with docility. If God punishes sins, he certainly 
imputes them ; if he avenges them, he remembers them; if he 
cites them to judgment, he does not cover them; if he exa- 
mines them, he has not cast them behind his back; if he 
inspects them, he has not blotted them out as a cloud; if 
he scrutinizes them, he has not cast them into the depths of 
the sea. And in this manner the subject is clearly explained by 
Augustine. ‘If God has covered sins, he would not look. at 
them ; if he would not look at them, he would not take cogni- 
zance of them; if he would not take cognizance of them, he 
would not punish them; he would not know them, he would 
rather forgive them. Why, then, has he said that sins are co- 
vered? That they might not be seen. For what is meant by 
God’s seeing sin, but his punishing it?”’ Let us also hear from 
another passage of the prophet, on what conditions God remits 
sins. ‘Though your sins be as scarlet, (says he,) they shall be 
as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall 
be as wool.” (w) And in Jeremiah we find this declaration : 
‘‘Tn that time the iniquities of Israel shall be sought for, and 
there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not 
be found; for I will pardon them whom I reserve.” (x) Would 
you briefly know what is the meaning of these words? Con- 
sider, on the contrary, the import of the following expressions: 
“the Lord seweth up iniquity in a bag;” “iniquity is bound 
up;” ‘sin is hid; ” to “ write sins with a pen of iron, and en- 
grave them with the point of a diamond.” (y) If they signify 


(s) Jer. xxxi, 31—34. (t) Ezek. xviii. 24—98, 
(u) Isaiah xxxviii. 17; xliv. 22. Micah vii. 19. Psalm xxxii. 1, 2. 
(w) Isaiah i. 18. (x) Jeremiah 1. 20. 


(y) Job xiv 17. Hos. xiit. 12. Jeremiah xvii. 1. 


590 : INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK IIL. 


that God will execute vengeance, as they undoubtedly do 
neither can it be doubted but that, by the contrary declaration, 
the Lord proclaims his remission of all vindictive punishment. 
Here I must conjure my readers not to listen to my exposi- 
tions, but only to pay some deference to the word of God. 
XXX. What would Christ have done for us, if punishment 
for sins were still inflicted on us? For when we say, that he 
‘bare all our sins in his own body on the tree,” (2) we intend 
only, that he sustained the vindictive punishment which was 
due to our sins. This sentiment is more significantly ex- 
pressed by Isaiah, when he says that the ‘‘ chastisement (or cor- 
rection) of our peace was upon him.’ (a) Now, what is the 
correction of our peace, but the punishment due to sins, and 
which we must have suffered before we could be reconciled to 
God, if he had not become our substitute? Thus we see 
clearly, that Christ bore the punishment of sins, that he might 
deliver his people from it. And whenever Paul mentions the 
redemption accomplished by him, he generally calls it éroAurpu- 
ois, (6) which signifies not simply redemption, as it is common- 
ly understood, but the price and satisfaction of redemption. 
Thus he says that Christ ‘“ gave himself a ransom’ (avsiurpov) 
for us.(c) ‘What propitiation is there with the Lord (says 
Augustine) but sacrifice? And what sacrifice is there, but that 
which has been offered for us in the death of Christ?” But 
the institutions of the law of Moses, respecting expiations for 
sins, furnish us with a most powerful argument. For there 
the Lord prescribes not this or the other method of satisfying, 
but requires the whole compensation in sacrifices; though he 
specifies all the rites of expiation with the most particular 
care, and in the most exact order. How is it that he com- 
mands the expiation of sins without any works at all, requiring 
no other atonement than by sacrifices, but because he intends 
in this way to declare, that there is only one kind of satisfaction 
by which his justice is appeased? For the sacrifices then 
immolated by the Israelites were not considered as the works 
of men, but were estimated according to their antitype, that is, 
the one sacrifice of Christ alone. The nature of the compen- 
sation which the Lord receives from us is concisely and beau- 
tifully expressed by Hosea: ‘Take away (saith he) all ini- 
quity, O Lord;” here is remission of sins; ‘“‘so will we ren- 
der the calves of our lips; ”’ (d) here is satisfaction, [which is no 
other than thanksgiving.] I am aware of another still more 
subtle evasion to which they resort, by distinguishing between 
eternal punishments and those which are temporal. But when 


(z) 1 Peter ii. 24. (a) Isaiah liii. 6. (b) Rom. iii. 24, &e. 
(c) 1 Tim. ii. 6. (d) Hosea xiv. 2. 


CHAP. Iv. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 591 


they assert that temporal punishment is any suffering inflicted 
by God on the body or the soul, eternal death only excepted, 
this limitation affords them but little assistance. For the pas- 
sages which we have: cited above, expressly signify, that God 
receives us into favour on this condition, that. in forgiving our 
guilt, he remits all the punishment that we had deserved. 
And whenever David or the other prophets implore the pardon 
of their sins, they at the same time deprecate the punishment ; 
and to this they are impelled by an apprehension of the Divine 
judgment. Again: when they promise mercy from the Lord, 
they almost always professedly speak of punishments, and of 
the remission of them. Certainly when the Lord announces 
by Ezekiel, that he will put an end to the Babylonian cap- 
tivity, and that for his own sake, not for the sake of the Jews, 
he sufficiently shows this deliverance to be gratuitous. Finally, 
if Christ delivers us from guilt, the punishments consequent 
upon it must necessarily cease. 

XXXI. But as our adversaries also, on their part, arm them- 
selves with testimonies from the Scripture, let us examine what 
arguments they offer. They reason in this way; David, after 
having been reproved by Nathan the prophet for adultery and 
murder, receives the pardon of his sin; and yet is afterwards 
punished by the death of the son that was the fruit of his adul- 
tery.(e) We are taught to compensate by satisfactions for 
such punishments as would be inflicted even after the remis- 
sion of the guilt. For Daniel exhorted Nebuchadnezzar to 
atone for his sins by acts of mercy.(f) And Solomon says, 
‘By mercy and truth, iniquity is purged.” (g) And _ that 
“charity shall cover a multitude of sins,’ (A) is a sentiment 
confirmed by the united testimony of Solomon and Peter. 
The Lord also says in Luke, concerning the woman that had 
been a sinner, “ Her sins are forgiven; for she loved much.” (2) 
How perversely and preposterously they always estimate the 
Divine proceedings! But if they had observed, what should 
by no means have been overlooked, that there are two kinds 
of Divine judgment, they would have seen, in this correction 
of David, a species of punishment very different from that 
which may be considered as vindictive. But since it highly 
concerns us all to understand the design of those chastisements 
with which God corrects our sins, and how greatly they differ 
from the examples of his indignation pursuing the impious and 
reprobate, I conceive it will not be unseasonable to give a 
summary account of them. For the sake of perspicuity, let us 
call one vengeance, or vindictive judgment, and the other 


e) 2Sam. xii. 13, 14. f) Dan. iv. 27. (g) Prov. xvi. 6. 
( R 
(hk) Prov. x.12. 1 Peter iv. 8. () Luke vn. 47. 


592 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 11. 


chastisement, or disciplinary judgment. In vindictive judg- 
ment, God is to be contemplated as taking vengeance on his 
enemies, so as to exert his wrath against them, to confound, 
dissipate, and reduce them to nothing. We consider it, there- 
fore, strictly speaking, to be the vengeance of God, when the 
punishment he inflicts is attended with his indignation, In 
disciplinary judgment, he is not so severe as to be angry; nor 
does he punish in order to destroy or precipitate into perdition. 
Wherefore, it is not properly punishment or vengeance, but 
correction and admonition. The former is the part of a judge, 
the latter of a father. For a judge, when he punishes an of- 
fender, attends to the crime itself, and inflicts punishment ac- 
cording to the nature and aggravations of it. When a father 
corrects his child with severity, he does it not to take ven- 
geance or satisfaction, but rather to teach him, and render him 
more cautious for the future. Chrysostom somewhere uses a 
comparison a little different, which, nevertheless, comes to the 
same point. ‘A son (says he) is beaten; a servant also is 
beaten ; but the latter is punished as a slave, because he has 
transgressed ; the former is chastised as free and a son, that 
needs to be disciplined.’’ Correction serves to the Jatter for a 
probation and reformation, to the former for a scouney and a 
punishment. 

XXXII. To obtain a clear view of the whole subject ina 


small compass, it is necessary to state two distinctions respect- 


ing it. ‘The first is, that wherever there is vindictive punish- 
ment, there also is a manifestation of the curse and wrath of 
God, which he always withholds from believers. Chastise- 
ment, on the contrary, is, as the Scripture teaches us, both a 
blessing of God, and a testimony of his love. This difference 
is sufficiently marked in every part of the Divine word. For 
all the afflictions which the impious endure in the present life, 
are represented to us as constituting a kind of antechamber of 
hell, whence they already have a distant prospect of their eter- 
nal damnation ; and they are so far from being reformed, or re- 
ceiving any benefit from this, that they are rather prepared by 
such preludes for that most tremendous vengeance which finally 
awaits them. On the contrary, the Lord repeatedly chastises 
his servants, yet does not deliver them over to death; (k) 
wherefore they confess that the strokes of his rod were highly 
peneficial and instructive to them. As we every where find 
that the saints bore these corrections with resignation of soul, 
so they always earnestly deprecated punishments of the former 
kind. Jeremiah says, ‘‘ O Lord, correct me, but with judgment ; 
not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing. Pour out 


(k) Job v.17. Prov. iii. 11. Heb. xii. 5—11. Psalm exviii. 18; exix. 71. 


CHAP. Iy.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 593 


thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the 
families that call not upon thy name.” (/) And David: “O 
Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy 
hot displeasure.”’ (mm) Nor is it any objection to this, that the 
Lord is frequently said to be angry with his saints, when he 
chastises them for their sins. As in Isaiah: ‘“‘O Lord, I will 
praise thee; though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is 
turned away, and thou comfortedst me.”’ (7) Habakkuk also: 
“Yn wrath remember mercy.” (0) And Micah: ‘I will bear 
the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against 
him.” (p) Which reminds us, not only that those who are 
justly punished, receive no advantage from murmuring; but 
that the faithful derive a mitigation of their sorrow from a con- 
sideration of the intention of God. For on the same account 
he is said to profane his own inheritance, which, however, we 
know, he never will profane.(q) That relates not to the de- 
sign or disposition of God in punishing, but to the vehement 
sense of sorrow experienced by those who suffer any of his 
severity. _ He not only distresses his believing people with no 
small degree of rigour, but sometimes wounds them in sucha 
manner, that they seem to themselves to be on the brink of 
infernal destruction. 'Thus he declares, that they have de- 
served his wrath; and this in order that they may be dis- 
pleased with themselves in their distresses, may be influenced 
by a greater concern to appease God, and may hasten with 
solicitude to implore his pardon ; but in this very procedure he 
exhibits a brighter testimony of his clemency than of his wrath. 
The covenant still remains which was made with us in our true 
Solomon, and the validity of which he, who cannot deceive, 
has declared shall never be diminished: “If his children for- 
sake my law, and walk not in my commandments; if they 
break my statutes, and keep not my commandments; then 
will I visit their transgressions with the rod, and their iniqui- 
ties with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving-kindness will I not 
utterly take from him.” (r) ‘To assure us of this loving-kind- 
ness, he says, that the rod with which he will chastise the 
posterity of Solomon, and the stripes he will inflict on them, 
will be “the rod of men, and the stripes of the children of 
men.” (s) While by these phrases he signifies moderation and 
lenity, he also implies that those who feel his hand exerted 
against them cannot but be confounded with an extreme and 
deadly horror. How much he observes this lenity in chastis- 
ing his Israel, he shows by the prophet: ‘I have refined thee, 
(says he,) but not with silver; (¢) for thou wouldst have been 


(1) Jer. x. 24, 25. (0) Hab. iii. 2. (r) Ps. Ixxxix. 30—33 
(m) Ps. vi. 1; xxxviil. 1. (p) Micah vii. 9. (s) 2 Sam. vii. 14, 
(n) Isaiah xii. 1. (q) Is. xliii. 28; xlvii.6.  (¢) Is. xlviii. 10. 


m= 


VOL. I. ( 


594 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOoR II. 


wholly consumed.” 'Though he teaches him that chastise- 
ments serve to purify him, yet he adds that he so far moderates 
them, that they may not exceed what he is able to bear. And 
this is highly necessary ; for the more a man reveres God and 
devotes himself to the cultivation of piety, he is so much the 
more tender to bear his wrath. For though the reprobate 
groan under his scourges, yet because they consider not the 
cause, but rather turn their backs both on their sins and on the 
Divine judgments; from this carelessness they contract an in- 
sensibility ; or because they murmur and resist, and rebel 
against their judge, that furious impetuosity stupefies them 
with madness and rage. But believers, admonished by the 
Divine corrections, immediately descend to the consideration 
of their sins, and, stricken with fear and dread, resort to a sup- 
pliant deprecation of punishment. If God did not mitigate 
these sorrows, with which wretched souls torment themselves, 
they would be continually fainting, even under slight tokens 
of his wrath. 

XXXII. The second distinction is, that when the repro- 
bate are lashed by the scourges of God in this world, they 
already begin to suffer his vindictive punishments; and though 
they will not escape with impunity for having disregarded such 
indications of the Divine wrath, yet they are not punished in 
order to their repentance, but only that, from their great misery, 
they may prove God to be a judge who will inflict vengeance 
according to their crimes. On the contrary, the children of 
God are chastised, not to make satisfaction to him for their 
sins, but that they may thereby be benefited: and brought to 
repentance. Wherefore we see, that such chastisements re- 
late to the future rather than the past. To express this, I 
would prefer Chrysostom’s language to my own. “For this 
reason (says he) God punishes us, not to take vengeance for 
our sins, but to correct us for the future.”” Thus also Au- 
gustine: “That which you suffer, and which causes you to 
mourn, is a medicine to you, not a punishment; a chastise- 
ment, and not damnation. Reject not the scourge, if you de- 
sire not to be rejected from the inheritance. All this misery 
of mankind, under which the world groans, know, brethren, 
that it is a medicinal sorrow, not a penal sentence.” ‘These 
passages I have therefore thought proper to quote, that no one 
might consider the phraseology which I have adopted to be 
novel or unusual. And to the same purpose are the indignant 
complaints in which the Lord. frequently expostulates on ac- 
count of the ingratitude of the people, and their obstinate con- 
tempt of all their punishments. In Isaiah: “‘ Why should ye 
be stricken any more? From the sole of the foot even unto 
the head there is no soundness.” (w) But as the prophets 


(u) Isaiah i. 5, 6. 


cHar. 1v.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 595 


abound in such passages, it will be sufficient briefly to have 
suggested, that God punishes his Church with no other design 
than to subdue it to repentance. Therefore, when he rejected 
Saul from the kingdom, he punished him in a vindictive man- 
ner; (2) when he deprived David of his infant son, he correct- 
ed him in order to his reformation. (y) In this sense we must 
understand the observation of Paul: ‘When we are judged, 
we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be con- 
demned with the world.” (z) ‘That is, when we, the children 
of God, are afflicted by the hand of our heavenly Father, this 
is not a punishment to confound us, but only a chastisement 
to instruct us. In which Augustine evidently coincides with 
us; for he teaches that the punishments with which men are 
equally chastised by God, are to be considered in different 
points of view ; because to the saints, after the remission of 
their sins, they are conflicts and exercises, but to the reprobate, 
whose sins are not forgiven, they are the penalties due to their 
iniquity. He also mentions the punishments inflicted on David 
and other pious persons, and says, that those chastisements 
tended to promote their humility, and thereby to exercise and 
prove their piety. And the declaration of Isaiah, that Jeru- 
salem’s “iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the 
Lord’s hand double for all her sins,’ (a) proves not the 
pardon of transgressions to depend on the suffering of the pu- 
nishment, but is just as though he had said, ‘‘ Punishments 
enough have ‘now been inflicted on you; and.as the severity 
and multitude of them have harassed you with a long continu- 
ance of grief and sorrow, it is time for you to receive the mes- 
sage of complete mercy, that your hearts may be expanded 
with joy, and experience me to be your Father.” For God 
there assumes the character of a Father, who repents even of 
his righteous severity, when he has been constrained to chas- 
tise his son with any degree of rigour. 

XXXIV. It is necessary that the faithful should be provided 
with these reflections in the anguish of afflictions. ‘The time 
is come that judgment must begin at the house of God, upon 
which his name is called.” (6) What would the children of 
God do, if they believed the severity which they feel to be the 
vengeance of God upon them? For he who, under the strokes 
of the Divine hand, considers God as an avenging Judge, can- 
not but conceive of Him as incensed against him, and hostile to 
him, and will therefore detest his scourge itself as a curse and 
condemnation ; in a word, he who thinks that God is still de- 
termined to punish him, can never be persuaded to believe him- 

ne | 


(a) 1, Sem, xv. 23. (y) 2 Sam. xii. 18. (z) 1 Cor. xi. 32. 
(a) Isaiah xl. 2. (b) 1 Peter iv.17. Jer. xxv. 29, marg. read. 


596 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1 


self an object of the Divine love. The only one who receives 
any benefit from the Divine chastisements, is he who considers 
God as angry with his crimes, but propitious and benevolent 
towards his person. For otherwise the case must necessarily 
be similar to what the Psalmist complains of having experi- 
enced: ‘‘ Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut 
me off.” (c) And what Moses also speaks of: “ For we are 
consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled. 
Thou hast set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the 
light of thy countenance. For all our days are passed away in 
thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told.”(d) On 
the contrary, David, speaking of his paternal chastisements, in 
order to show that believers are rather assisted than oppressed 
by them, sings: ‘ Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O 
Lord, and teachest him out of thy law ; that thou mayest give 
him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for 
the wicked.” (e) It is certainly a severe temptation, when the 
Lord spares unbelievers, and conceals their crimes, while he ap- 
pears more rigorous towards-his own children. For their consola- 
tion, therefore, he adds the admonition of the law, whence they 
may learn, that it is for the promotion of their salvation when 
they are recalled into the way, but that the impious are precipi- 
tated into their errors, which end in the pit. Nor is it of any 
importance whether the punishment be eternal or temporal. 
F‘or wars, famines, plagues, and diseases are curses from God, 
as well as the judgment of eternal death itself, when they are 
inflicted as the instruments of the Lord’s wrath and vengeance 
against the reprobate. 

XXXV. Every one, I presume, now perceives the design of 
the Lord’s correction of David, that it was to be a proof of 
God’s extreme displeasure against murder and adultery, with 
which he declared himself to be so greatly offended in his 
beloved and faithful servant, and to teach David never again to 
be guilty of such crimes; but not as a punishment, by which he 
was to render God a satisfaction for his offence. And we ought 
to form the same judgment concerning the other correction, in 
which the Lord afflicted the people with a violent pestilence, 
on account of the disobedience of David in numbering them. 
For he freely forgave David the guilt of his sin; but because 
Yi was necessary, as a public example to all ages, and also to 
the humihation of David, that such an offence should not re- — 
main unpunished,.he chastised him with extreme severity. 
This end we should keep in view also in the universal curse of 
mankind. For since we all, even after having obtained pardon, 
still suffer the miseries which were inflicted on our“first parent 


(c) Psalm lxxxviii. 16. (d) Psalm xc 7—9. (e) Psalm xciv. 12, 13. 


CHAP. Iv. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 597 


as the punishment of sin, we consider such afflictions as ad- 
monitions how grievously God is displeased with the trans- 
gression of his law; that being thus dejected and humbled 
with a consciousness of our miserable condition, we may aspire 
with greater ardour after true blessedness. Now, he is very 
unwise, who imagines that the calamities of the present life are 
inflicted upon us as satisfactions for the guilt of sin. This 
appears to me to have been the meaning of Chrysostom, when 
he said, ‘If God therefore inflicts punishments on us, that 
while we are persisting in sins he may call tis to repentance, — 
after a discovery of repentance, the punishment will be unne- 
cessary.”’ Wherefore he treats one person with greater severi- 
ty,and another with more tender indulgence, as he knows to 
be suitable to every man’s particular disposition. ‘Therefore, 
when he means to suggest that he is not excessively severe in 
the infliction of punishment, he reproaches an obdurate and ob- 
stinate people, that though they have been corrected, they have 
not forsaken their sins.(f) In this sense he complains, that 
‘ Eiphraim is a cake not turned,” (g) that is, scorched on one 
side, unbaked on the other; because his corrections did not 
penetrate the hearts of the people, so as to expel their vices and 
render them proper objects of pardon. By expressing himself 
in this manner, he certainly gives us to understand, that as soon 
as they shall have repented, he will be immediately appeased, 
and that the rigour which he exercises in chastising offences 1s 
extorted from him by our obstinacy, but would be prevented by 
a voluntary reformation. Yet since our obduracy and igno- 
rance are such as universally to need castigation, our most wise 
Father is pleased to exercise all his children, without excep- 
tion, with the strokes of his rod,as long as they live. It is 
astonishing why they fix their eyes thus on the example of 
David alone, and are unaffected by so many instances in which 
they might behold a gratuitous remission of sins. "The pub- 
lican is said to have gone down from the temple justified ; (h) 
no punishment follows. Peter obtained the pardon of his sins. 
“We read,” says Ambrose, ‘of his tears, but not of his satis- 
faction.” (7) And a_ paralytic hears the following address: 
‘Be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee ;” (4) no punish- 
ment is inflicted. All the absolutions which are mentioned 
in the Scripture, are described as gratuitous. A general rule 
ought rather to be deduced from these numerous examples, 
than from that single case which is attended with peculiar 
- circumstances. 

XXXVI. When Daniel exhorted Nebuchadnezzar to ‘ break 


Jer. v. 3. g) Hosea vii. 8. (hk) Luke xviii. 14. 
o) (<) Luke xxii. ©, (k) Matt. ix. 2. 


598 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book m1. 


off his sins by righteousness, and his iniquities by showing 
mercy to the poor,’ (/) he meant not to intimate that mght- 
eousness and mercy propitiate God and atone for sins; for God 
forbid that there should ever be any other redemption than the 
blood of Christ. But he used the term break off with reference 
to men, rather than to God; as though he had said, “Thou 
hast exercised, O king, an unrighteous and violent despotism ; 
thou hast oppressed the weak; thou hast plundered the poor; 
thou hast treated thy people with harshness and iniquity ; 
instead of unjust ex&ctions, instead of violence and oppression, 
now substitute mercy and righteousness.” In a similar sense 
Solomon says, that ‘‘ love covereth all sins ;’’ not with reference 
to God, but among men. For the whole verse is as follows: 
“ Hatred stirreth up strifes; but love covereth all sins.” (m) 
In which verse, he, according to his usual custom, contrasts the 
evils arising from hatred with the fruits of love; signifying, 
that they who hate each other, reciprocally harass, criminate, 
reproach, revile, and convert every thing into a fault ; but that 
they who love one another, mutually conceal, connive at, 
and reciprocally forgive, many things among themselves; not 
that they approve each other’s faults, but bear with them, 
and heal them by admonition, rather than aggravate them by 
invectives. Nor can we doubt that Peter intended the same in 
his citation of this passage, (m) unless we mean to accuse him 
of corrupting, and craftily perverting the Scriptures. When 
Solomon says, that ‘by mercy and truth iniquity is purged,” (0) 
he intends not a compensation in the Divine view, so that God, 
being appeased with such a satisfaction, remits the punishment 
which he would otherwise have inflicted; but, in the familiar 
manner of Scripture, he signifies, that they shall find him 
propitious to them who have forsaken their former vices and 
iniquities, and are converted to him in piety and truth; as 
though he had said, that the wrath of God subsides, and his 
judgment ceases, when we cease from our sins. He describes 
not the cause of pardon, but the mode of true conversion. 
Just as the prophets frequently declare that it is in vain for 
hypocrites to offer to God ostentatious ceremonies instead of 
repentance, since he is only pleased with integrity and the 
duties of charity ; and as the author of the Epistle to the He- 
brews, when he recommends us ‘to do good and to commu- 
nicate,” informs us that ‘with such sacrifices God is well 
pleased.”’ (p) And when Christ ridicules the Pharisees for 
having attended only to the cleansing of dishes, and neglected 
all purity of heart, and commands them to give alms that all 


(1) Dan. iv. 27. (m) Prov. x. 12. (n) 1 Peter iv. 8. 
(0) Prov. xvi. 6. (p) Heb. xiii. 16. 


CHAP. Iv.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 599 


might be clean, (q) he is not exhorting them to make a satis- 
faction, but only teaching them what kind of purity obtains 
the Divine approbation. But of this expression we have treated 
in another work.* 

XXXVII. With respect to the passage of Luke, (7) no one, 
who has read with a sound judgment the parable the Lord 
there proposes, will enter into any controversy with us con- 
cerning it. The Pharisee thought within himself, that the 
Lord did not know the woman, whom he had so easily admit- 
ved to his presence. For he imagined that Christ would not 
have admitted her, if he had known what kind of a sinner she 
was. And thence he inferred that Christ, who was capable of 
being so deceived, was not a prophet. ‘To show that,she was 
not a sinner, her sins having already been forgiven, the Lord 
proposed this parable: ‘‘ There was a certain creditor, which 
had two debtors; the one owed five hundred pence, and the 
other fifty. He frankly forgave them both. Which of them 
will love him most?” The Pharisee answered, “He to 
whom he forgave most.” The Lord rejoins, Hence know that 
“this woman’s sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she 
loved much.” In these words, you see, he makes her love, not 
the cause of the remission of her sins, but the proof of it. For 
they are taken from a comparison of that debtor to whom five 
hundred pence had been forgiven, of whom it is said, not that 
his debt was forgiven, because he had loved much, but that he 
loved much because his debt had been forgiven. And this 
similitude may be applied to the case of the woman in the fol- 
lowing manner: “‘ You suppose this woman to be a sinner; but 
you ought to know that she is not such, since her sins are 
forgiven her. And her love ought to convince you of the re- 
mission of her sins, by the grateful return she makes for this 
blessing.”” It is an argumentum a posteriort, by which any 
thing is proved from.its consequences. By what means she 
obtained remassion of sins, the Lord plainly declares: “ Thy 
faith,” says he, “hath saved thee.” By faith therefore we 
obtain remission, by love we give thanks and declare the good- 
ness of the Lord. 

XXXVIII. To those things which frequently occur in the 
works of the fathers concerning satisfaction, I pay little re- 
gard. I see, indeed, that some of them, or, to speak plainly, 
almost all whose writings are extant, have either erred on this 
point, or expressed themselves too harshly. But I shall not 
admit that they were so ignorant and inexperienced, as to write 
those things in the sense in which they are understood by the 
modern advocates for satisfaction. Chrysostom somewhere 


(q) Luke x1 39—41. * In Harm. Evang. (r) Luke vii. 39. 


600 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 111, 


expresses himself thus: ‘‘ Where mercy is requested, examina- 
tion ceases; where mercy is implored, judgment is not severe ; 
where mercy is sought, there is no room for punishment ; 
where there is mercy, there is no inquiry ; where mercy is, an 
answer is freely given.” ‘These expressions, however they may 
be distorted, can never be reconciled with the dogmas of the 
schools. In the treatise On Ecclesiastical Doctrines, which is 
ascribed to Augustine, we read the following passage: “The 
satisfaction of repentance is to cut off the causes of sins, and 
not to indulge an entrance to their suggestions.”” Whence it 
appears, that even in those times the doctrine of satisfaction, as 
a compensation for sins committed, was universally rejected, 
since he refers all satisfaction to a cautious abstinence from sins 
in future. I will not quote what is further asserted by Chry- 
sostom, that the Lord requires of us nothing more than to con- 
fess our sins before him with tears; for passages of this kind 
frequently occur in his writings, and in those of other fathers. 
Augustine somewhere calls works of mercy ‘remedies for ob- 
taining remission of sins;” but lest any one should stumble at 
that expression, he explains himself more fully in another place. 
‘‘'The flesh of Christ,” says he, “‘is the true and sole sacrifice 
for sins, not only for those which are all obliterated in baptism, 
but also for those which afterwards creep in through infirmity ; 
on account of which the whole Church at present exclaims, 
Forgive us our debts ; (s) and they are forgiven through that 
single sacrifice.” 

XX XIX. But they most commonly used the word “ satis- 
faction’ to signify, not a compensation rendered to God, but 
a public testification, by which those who had been punished 
with excommunication, when they wished to be readmitted to 
communion, gave the Church an assurance of their repentance. 
For there were enjoined on those penitents certain fastings, and 
other observances, by which they might prove themselves truly 
and cordially weary of their former life, or rather obliterate the 
memory of their past actions; and thus they were said to make 
satisfaction, not to God, but to the Church. This is also ex- 
pressed by Augustine in these very words, in his Enchiridion 
ad Laurentium. From that ancient custom have originated 
the confessions and satisfactions which are used in the present 
age; a viperous brood which retain not even the shadow of that 
original form. I know that the fathers sometimes express them- 
selves rather harshly ; nor do I deny, what I have just asserted, 
that perhaps they have erred. But their writings, which were ~ 
only besprinkled with a few spots, after they have been handled 
by such foul hands, became thoroughly soiled. And if we 


(s) Matt. vi. 12. 


<) 


CHAP. V.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 601 


must contend with the authority of fathers, what fathers do 
they obtrude upon us? Most of those passages, of which 
Lombard, their champion, has compiled his heterogeneous col- 
lection, are extracted from the insipid reveries of some monks, 
which are circulated under the names of Ambrose, Jerome, 
Augustine, and Chrysostom. Thus, on the present argument, 
he borrows almost every thing from a Treatise on Repentance, 
which is a ridiculous selection from various authors, good and 
bad ; it bears the name of Augustine indeed, but no man.even 
of moderate learning can deign to admit it as really his. For 
not entering into a more particular examination of their absurdi- 
ties, I request the pardon of the reader, whom I wish to spare 
that trouble. It would be both easy and plausible for me to 
expose to the greatest contempt, what they have heretofore 
celebrated as mysteries; but I forbear, as my object is to write 
what may tend to edification. 


CHAPTER V. 


INDULGENCES AND PURGATORY. THE SUPPLEMENTS TO THEIR 
DOCTRINE OF SATISFACTIONS. 


T'n1s doctrine of satisfaction has given rise to indulgences. 
For by indulgences they pretend, that the deficiency of our 
abilities to make satisfaction is supplied, and even proceed to 
the extravagance of defining them to be the dispensation of 
the merits of Christ and of the martyrs, which the Pope distri- 
butes in his bulls. Now, though such persons are fitter subjects 
fora mad-house than for arguments, so that it would be of little 
use to engage in refuting errors so frivolous, which have been 
shaken by many attacks, and begin of themselves to grow ob- 
solete, and totter towards a fall, yet, as a brief refutation will 
be useful to some minds hitherto uninformed on the subject, I 
shall not altogether omit it. And indeed the establishment and 
long continuance of indulgences, with the unlimited influence 
retained by them amidst such outrageous and furious licen- 
tiousness, may serve to convince us in what a deep night of 
errors men were immersed for several ages. They saw, that 
they were themselves objects of the public and undissembled 
ridicule of the Pope and the dispensers of his bulls; that lu- 
crative bargains were made concerning the salvation of their 
‘souls ; that the price of salvation was fixed at a trifling sum of 
money, and nothing presented gratuitously ; that under this 

VOL. I. 76 


502 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 111 


pretext, contributions were extorted from them, which were 
vilely consumed on brothels, pimps, and revellings; that the 
greatest advocates: of indulgences were the greatest despisers 
of them; that this monster was daily making longer strides in 
licentious power and luxury, and that there was no end, that 
more trash was continually produced, and more money continu- 
ally extorted. Yet they received indulgences with the greatest 
veneration, adored them and purchased them; and those who 
had more discernment than others, yet considered them as 
pious frauds, by which they might be deceived with some ad- 
vantage. At length, since the world has permitted itself to re- 
cover a little the exercise of reason, indulgences become more 
and more discredited, till they altogether disappear. 

Il. But since many, who see the pollution, imposture, rob- 
bery, and rapacity, with which the dispensers of indulgences 
have hitherto amused themselves and cajoled us, do not perceive 
the fountain of all this impiety, — it will be necessary to show, 
not only the nature of indulgences as commonly used, but what 
they are in themselves when abstracted from every adventi- 
tious blemish. 'The merits of Christ and of the holy apostles 
and martyrs, they style “the treasury of the Church.” The 
principal custody of this repository they pretend to have been 
delivered, as I have already hinted, to the bishop of Rome, 
who has the dispensation of such great benefits, so that he can 
both bestow them himself, and delegate the power of bestow- 
ing them to others. Hence from the Pope are received some- 
times plenary indulgences, sometimes indulgences for a certain 
number of years; from Cardinals, for a hundred days; from 
Bishops, for forty days. But to describe them correctly, they 
are a profanation of the blood of Christ and a delusion of Satan, 
by which they seduce Christians from the grace of God and 
the life which is in Christ, and turn them aside from the right 
way of salvation. For how could the blood of Christ be more 
basely profaned, than when it is denied to be sufficient for the 
remission of sins, for reconciliation and satisfaction, unless its 
deficiency be supplied from some other quarter? ‘To him,” 
says Peter, “give all the prophets witness, that through his 
name, whosoever believeth on him shall receive remission of 
sins.” (¢) Indulgences dispense remission of sins through 
Peter, and Paul, and the martyrs. ‘The blood of. Jesus 
Christ,” says John, “cleanseth us from all sin.” (w)  Indul-- 
gences make the blood of the martyrs the ablution of sins. 
Paul says, that Christ, ‘‘who knew no sin, was made sin for 
us;”’ that is, a satisfaction for sin, “that we might be made 
the righteousness of God in him.’ (w) Indulgences place sa- 


(t) Acts x. 43. (wu) 1 John i. 7. (w) 2 Cor. v. 21. 


CHAP. v.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 603 


tisfaction for sins in the blood of the martyrs. Paul declared 
to the Corinthians, that Christ alone was crucified and died for 
them. (z) Indulgences pronounce that Paul and others died 
for us. In another place he says, that Christ “‘ hath purchased 
the Church with his own blood.” (y) Indulgences assign’ an- 
other price of this purchase, in the blood of the martyrs. The 
apostle says, that “by one offering Christ hath perfected for ever 
them that are sanctified.” (z) Indulgences, on the contrary, 
proclaim that sanctification, which were otherwise insufficient, 
receives its perfection from the martyrs. «John declares that 
all saints ‘have washed their robes in the blood of the 
Lamb.” (a) Indulgences teach us to wash our robes in the 
blood of the saints. 

Ill. Leo, bishop of Rome, excellently opposes these sacri- 
legious pretensions in his epistle to the Bishops of Palestine. 
* Although the death of many saints,’ he says, ‘‘ has been pre- 
cious in the sight of the Lord, yet the murder of no innocent 
person has been the propitiation of the world. The righteous 
have received, not bestowed, crowns; and from the fortitude 
of the faithful have arisen examples of patience, not gifts of 
righteousness. For their deaths have been all singular, nor has 
any one by his death discharged the debt of another; for it 
is the Lord Christ alone, in whom,all are crucified, dead, 
buried, and raised from the dead.” ‘This passage being worthy 
of remembrance, he repeats it in another place. Surely no- 
thing clearer can be desired, in confutation of this impious 
doctrine of indulgences. And Augustine expresses himself 
with equal propriety to the same purpose. He says, “ Al- 
though we die, brethren for brethren, yet the blood of no 
martyr is ever shed for the remission of sins. Christ has done 
this for us; and in doing it has not given an example in which 
we should imitate him, but conferred a favour for which we 
should thank him.” Again, in another place: “ As the Son of 
God alone became the Son of man, to make us with himself 
sons of God, so he alone, without any demerits, sustained the 
punishment for us, that we, without any merits, might through 
him obtain undeserved grace.” Indeed, whilst their whole 
doctrine is a compound of horrible sacrilege and blasphemies, 
yet this is a blasphemy more monstrous than the rest. Let 
them acknowledge whether these be not their opinions, that 
the martyrs have by their death performed for God, and merit- 
ed from him, more than was necessary’ for themselves ; that 
they had so great a redundance of merits, as to superabound to 
others ; that therefore, lest so great a blessing should be super- 
fluous, their blood is commingled with the blood of Christ, and 


(z) 1 Cor. i. 13. (y) Acts xx. 28. (z) Heb. x. 14. (a) Rev. vii. 14, 


604 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 111. 


that of both these is formed the treasury of the Church for the 
remission and expiation of sins; and that in this sense we 
ought to understand the declaration of Paul, “I fill up that 
which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh, for 
his body’s sake, which is the Church.” (6) , What is this but 
leaving Christ a mere name, and in other respects making him 
an inferior saint of the common order, scarcely distinguish- 
able among the multitude? He alone ought to have been 
preached, he alone exhibited, he alone mentioned, he alone re- 
garded, in all discourses on the procurement of remission of 
sins, expiation, and sanctification. But let us hear their grand 
argument: That the blood of the martyrs may not be shed in 
vain, let it be applied to the common benefit of the Church. 
Indeed ? Was it no advantage to glorify God by their death ? to 
subscribe to his truth with their blood ? to testify by their con- 
tempt of the present life, that they sought a better one? by 
their constancy, to confirm the faith of the Church, and van- 
quish the obstinacy of their enemies? But this is the fact: 
they acknowledge no benefit, if Christ alone be the propitiator, 
if he alone died for our sins, if he alone was offered for our re- 
demption. Peter and Paul, they say, might nevertheless have 
obtained the crown of victory, if they had expired in their 
beds. But since they gontended even to blood, it would be 
incompatible with the justice of God to leave this barren or un- 
fruitful. Asif God knew not how to augment the glory of 
his servants according to the extent of his gifts. But the 
Church in general receives an advantage sufficiently great, 
when by their triumphs it is inflamed with the same zeal for 
similar exertions and conflicts. 

IV. But how maliciously they pervert that passage of Paul, 
where he says, ‘that he fills up in his own flesh that which is 
behind of the afflictions of Christ!’ (c) For he refers that de- 
ficiency and supplement, not to the work of redemption, satis- 
faction, or expiation, but to those afflictions, with which the 
members of Christ, even all the faithful, must necessarily be 
exercised as long as they live in the present state. He says, 
therefore, that this remains of the afflictions of Christ, that 
having once suffered in himself, he daily suffers in his mem- 
bers. Christ honors us so far as to consider our afflictions as 
his. When Paul adds that he suffered ‘“ for the Church,” he 
means not for the redemption, reconciliation, or atonement of 
the Church, but for its edification and profit. As in another 
place he says, ‘I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that 
they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus.” (d) 
He writes to the Corinthians, that whatever tribulations he 


(b) Col. i. 24 (c) Col. i. 24. (d) 2 Tim. ii, 10. 


_ 


CHAP. vV.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 605 


endured, he was ‘afflicted for their consolation and _ salva- 
tion.” (e) And he immediately proceeds to explain himself, by 
adding, that he was made a minister of the Church, not for its 
redemption, but according to the dispensation which had been 
committed to him, to preach the gospel of Christ.(f) But if 
they require also another expositor, let them attend to Au- 
gustine: “'Tl‘he sufferings of Christ,” says he, “are in Christ 
alone, as in the head; in Christ and the Church, as in the 
whole body. Whence Paul, one of the members, says, I fill 
up in my flesh that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ. 
If you, therefore, whoever you are that read this, are one of the 
members of Christ, all that you suffer from such as are not 
members of Christ, was behind in the afflictions of Christ.” 
But the tendency of the sufferings of the apostles, sustained on 
account of the Church, is stated by him in another place: 
“Christ is my door to you; because you are the sheep of 
Christ, purchased with his blood: acknowledge your price, 
which is not given by me, but preached by me.” ‘Then he 
adds, ‘“‘ As he has laid down his life, so we ought also to lay 
down our lives for the brethren, for the establishment of peace 
and the confirmation of faith.” This is the language of Au- 
gustine. But let it'not be imagined, that Paul thought there 
was any deficiency in the sufferings of Christ, with respect to 
all the plenitude of righteousness, salvation, and life; or that 
any addition to them was intended by him, who so clearly and 
magnificently proclaims, that the ‘‘ abundance of grace by 
Christ”? was poured forth with such liberality, that it “much 
more abounded” beyond all the aboundings of sin. (g) It is 
not by the merit of their own life or death, but by this grace 
alone, that all the saints have been saved, as Peter expressly 
testifies ;(h) so that he would be guilty of an injurious con- 
tempt of God and of his Christ, who should place the worthiness 
of any saint in any thing else but the mere mercy of God. 
But why do I dwell any longer on this subject, as though it 
were still involved in obscurity ? whereas the statement of such 
monstrous notions is of itself a complete refutation of them. 
V. Now, to pass from such abominations, who taught the 
Pope to enclose in lead and parchment the grace of Jesus 
Christ, which the Lord designed to be dispensed by the word 
of the gospel? Hither the gospel of God must be false, or 
their indulgences fallacious. For that Christ is offered to us in 
the gospel, with all his plenitude of heavenly blessings, with 
all his merits, with all his righteousness, wisdom, and grace, 
without any exception, is-testified by Paul, when. he says, 
“God hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. 


(e) 2 Cor. 1. 6. (f) Col. i. 25. (g) Rom. v.17—20. = (h) Acts xv. 11. 


606 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book mI. 


Now, then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did 
beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye recon- 
ciled to God. For he hath made him, who knew no sin, to be 
sin for us; that we might be made the righteousness of God in 
him.” (¢) And believers know the meaning of that “ fellow- 
ship of Christ,’ (4) which, according to the testimony of the 
same apostle, is offered to our enjoyment in the gospel. In- 
dulgences, on the contrary, produce a certain allowance of 
grace from the Pope’s repository, fix it to lead and parchment, 
and even to a particular place, and separate it from the word of 
God. Now, if any one inquire the origin of this abuse, it 
seems to have arisen from an ancient custom, that when 
more severe satisfactions were imposed on penitents than could 
possibly be borne by all, they who felt themselves oppressed 
beyond measure, petitioned the Church for some relaxation of 
rigour. The remission granted to such persons was called in- 
dulgence. But when they transferred satisfactions to God, and 
said that they were compensations, by which men might re- 
deem themselves from the judgment of God, they also con- 
verted these indulgences into expiatory remedies, to deliver us 
from deserved punishments. But the blasphemies which we 
have mentioned have been fabricated with such consummate 
impudence, that they have not even the least appearance of 
plausibility, 

VI. Nor let them now trouble us any more about their pur- 
gatory, since it is utterly demolished by this argument. For I 
cannot coincide with some, who think it best to be silent on 
this point, and to omit the mention of purgatory, from which, 
they say, many sharp contentions arise, but very little edifica- 
tion results. Indeed, I should myself be of opinion that such 
trifles are unworthy of notice, if they did not consider them as 
matters of importance. But since purgatory has been erected 
with a multitude of blasphemies, and is daily propped by new 
ones, and since it excites many and grievous offences, it really 
must not pass without notice. It might be possible for a time 
to conceal that it was a fiction of curious and presumptuous te- 
merity, unsupported by the word of God; that it was accredit- 
ed by I know not what revelation invented by the subtlety of 
Satan; that for its confirmation some passages of Scripture 
were absurdly perverted. The Lord, however, suffers not hu- 
man presumption thus violently to break into the hidden re- 
cesses of his judgment;(/) and has severely prohibited the 
neglect of his word and the inquiry after truth among the — 
dead; and does not permit his word to be thus irreverently 
dishonoured. Nevertheless, admitting that all these things 


(2) 2 Cor. v, 18, &c. (k) 1 Cor. i. 9. (1) Deut. xviii. 10—12 


cuAP. V.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 607 


might for a short time have been tolerated as matters of smdll 
importance, yet when expiation of sins is sought any where 
but in the blood of Christ, when satisfaction is transferred to 
any other, silence becomes dangerous in the extreme. There- 
fore we should exclaim with all our might, that purgatory is a 
pernicious fiction of Satan, that it makes void the cross of 
Christ, that it intolerably insults the Divine mercy, and weak- 
ens and overturns our faith. For what is their purgatory, but 
a satisfaction for sins paid after death by the souls of the de- 
ceased? ‘Thus the notion of satisfaction being overthrown, 
purgatory itself is immediately subverted from its very founda- 
tions. Butif it has been fully evinced, that the blood of Christ 
is the only satisfaction, expiation, and purgation for the sins of 
the faithful, what is the necessary inference, but that purga- 
tory is nothing but a horrible blasphemy against Christ? I 
pass by the sacrilegious pretences with which it is daily de- 
fended, the offences which it produces in religion, and the 
other innumerable evils which we perceive to have proceeded 
from such a source of impiety. 

VIL. It is worth while, however, to wrest out of their hands 
those passages of Scripture, which they have falsely and cor- 
ruptly pressed into their service. ‘The assertion of the Lord, 
that the sin against the Holy Ghost “shall not be forgiven, — 
neither in this world, neither in the world to come,” (7m) im- 
plies, they say, that there is a forgiveness of some sins in the 
world to come. But who does not see, that the Lord there 
speaks of the guilt of sin? And if this be the case, what has 
it to do with their purgatory, for there they suppose punish- 
ment to be inflicted for sins, the guilt of which they do not 
deny to have been forgiven in the present life? But to prevent 
all further cavils, they shall have a plainer answer. When the 
Lord intended to cut off from such flagitious iniquity all hope 
of pardon, he thought it not sufficient to say that it should 
never be forgiven; but for the sake of further amplification he 
adopted a distinction, comprehending both the judgment which 
the conscience of every individual feels in this life, and that 
final judgment which will be publicly held at the resurrection ; 
as though he had said, ‘‘ Beware of malicious rebellion, as of 
immediate perdition; for he who shall have purposely endea- 
voured to extinguish the offered hight of the Spirit, shall never 
obtain pardon, neither in this life, which is allotted to sinners 
for their conversion, nor in the last day, when the lambs shall 
be separated from the goats by the angels of God, and the 
kingdom of heaven shall be purged from every offence.” They 
next adduce this parable from Matthew: ‘Agree with thine 


(m) Matt. xii. 32. 


608 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK It. | 


atlversary ; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the 
judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast 
into prison. ‘Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till 
thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.” (z) If in this place the 
judge signify God, the adversary the devil, the officer an angel, 
the prison purgatory, I will readily submit to them. But if it 
be evident to every one, that Christ there intended to show to 
how many dangers and calamities persons exposed themselves, 
who prefer obstinately exerting the rigour of the law, to acting 
upon the principles of equity and kindness, in order the more 
earnestly to exhort his disciples to an equitable concord, pray 
where will purgatory be found? 

VII. They derive an argument from the language of Paul, 
where he has affirmed, “ that at the name of Jesus every knee 
should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and 
things under the earth.” (0) For they assume it as granted, 
that ‘‘ things (or persons) under the earth’? cannot be under- 
stood of those who are consigned to eternal damnation. It fol- 
lows, therefore, that they must be the souls suffering in purga- 
tory. ‘Their reasoning would not be very bad, if, by genuflec- 
tion, the apostle designed truly pious worship; but since he 
simply teaches, that dominion is committed to Christ, by which 
all creatures must be subjugated, why may we not understand 
this phrase of the devils, who will indeed stand at the tribunal 
of the Lord, and acknowledge him as their Judge with fear 
and trembling? As Paul himself elsewhere explains the same 
prophecy: ‘“‘ We shall all stand,” says he, “before the judg- 
ment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the 
Lord, every knee shall bow to me,” &c.(p) But they reply, 
we cannot give the same kind of interpretation to this passage 


in the Revelation: “‘ Every creature which is in heaven, and — 


on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, 
and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, 
and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, 
and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.” (gq) This I readily 
concede; but what creatures do they suppose to be here enu- 
merated? for it is very certain, that the expressions comprehend 
creatures both irrational and inanimate. It is a mere declara- 
tion that all the parts of the world, from the summit of the hea- 
vens to the centre of the earth, celebrate, in their respective 
ways, the glory of the Creator. What they produce from the 
history of the Maccabees, I shall not honour with an answer, 
that I may not be supposed to place that work in the catalogue 
of sacred books. But Augustine, they say, received it as 
canonical. I inquire, first, With what degree of credit did he 


(n) Matt. v. 25. (p) Rom. xiv. 10, 11. 
(0) Phil. ii. 10. (q) Rev. v. 13. 


CHAP. V.| CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 609 


receive it? He says, ‘The history of the Maccabees is not 
esteemed by the Jews as the law, and the prophets, and the 
Psalms, to which the Lord gives a testimony, as being wit- 
nesses concerning him, saying, ‘All things must be ful- 
filled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the 
prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me.’(r) But it has 
been received by the Church, and not altogether unprofitably, 
if it be rea or heard with sobriety,” &c. Jerome, without any 
scruple, incu.cates, that its authority is of no force in the sup- 
port of doctrines. And from that old treatise on the Exposition 
of the Creed, which is ascribed to Cyprian, it clearly appears 
that it was not admitted in the ancient Church. But why am 
I now contending to no purpose? as though the author himself 
did not sufficiently show what deference is due to him, when, 
at the conclusion, he begs pardon if he should have spoken any 
thing improperly. Certainly he who confesses that his writings 
need pardon, proclaims them not to be the oracles of the Holy 
Spirit. Besides, the piety of Judas Maccabeus is commended 
on no other ground, but because he had a firm hope of the final 
resurrection, when he sent to Jerusalem an oblation for the 
dead. Nor does the historian represent this oblation as in- 
tended to be a price of redemption, but that those in whose 
names it was offered might be partakers of eternal life with the 
rest of the faithful who had died in defence of their country 
and religion. ‘This action was accompanied, indeed, by super- 
stition and preposterous zeal; but they are more than infatu- 
ated who apply to us a sacrifice offered under the law; since 
we know, that all such ancient usages ceased at the advent of 
Christ. 

IX. But they find in Paul an invincible argument, which 
cannot be so easily answered. ‘If any man,” says he, “ build 
upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, 
stubble, every man’s work shall be made manifest; for the 
day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire ; and 
the fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is. If any 
man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but he him- 
self shall be saved; yet so as by fire.’”?(s) What can this be, 
they ask, but purgatorial fire, by which the pollution of sins is 
cleansed, that we may enter pure into the kingdom of God ? 
But most of the fathers were of a different opinion, under- 
standing the word ‘fire’ to mean tribulation, or the cross, by 
which the Lord tries his children, to purify them from all carnal 
pollution ; and this is much more probable than the notion of 
purgatory. I cannot, however, coincide with them; for I 
think I have discovered a far more certain and lucid interpreta- 


(r) Luke xxiv. 44. (s) 1 Cor. iii. 12. 
VOL. I. citi 


610 INSTITUTES -OF THE [BooK It 


tion of this passage. ‘But before I state it, I could wish them 
to answer this question — whether they suppose it was neces- 
sary for the apostles and all the saints to pass through this 
purgatorial fire. I know they will answer in the negative ; 
for it were too absurd, that purification should be necessary 
to those whose redundant -merits they vainly imagine to super- 
abound to all the members of the Church. But the apostle 
affirms this; for he says, not that the work of some, but that 
the work of all, shall be proved. Nor is this my own argu- 
ment, but Augustine’s, who thus opposes the interpretation 
now adopted by our adversaries. And, what would be still 
more absurd, he says, not that they shall pass through the fire 
on account of any works, but that if they have edified the 
Church with perfect fidelity, they shall receive a reward, when 
their work shall have been tried by fire. In the first place, 
we see that the apostle uses a metaphor, when he calls doc- 
‘trines of human invention “ wood, hay, stubble.” The reason 
of the metaphor also is evident; that as wood, immediately on 
being placed in contact with fire, consumes and wastes away, 
so neither will those doctrines be able to abide the test of ex- 
amination. Now, it is well known that such an examination 
proceeds from the Spirit of God. Therefore, to pursue the 
thread of the metaphor, and to adapt the parts by.a proper re- 
lation to each other, he gives the Holy Spirit’s examination 
the appellation of fire. For as gold and silver afford a more 
certain proof of their goodness and purity in proportion to their 


proximity to the fire, so Divine truth receives the stronger 


confirmation of its authority, in proportion to the ‘strictness of 
spiritual examination by which it is investigated. As wood, 
hay, and stubble, brought into contact with fire, are speedily 
consumed, so the inventions of men, unsupported by the word 
of God, cannot bear the examination of the Holy Spirit, but 
must immediately fall to the ground. Finally, if false doc- 
trines are compared to wood, hay, and stubble, because, like 
wood, hay, and stubble, they are consumed by fire and entire- 
ly destroyed, and if they are overcome only by the Spirit of 
the Lord, it follows that the Spirit is that fire by which they 
will be proved. This trial Paul calls the day, or the day of 
the Lord, according to the common phraseology of Scripture. 
For that is called the day of the Lord, whenever he manifests 
his presence to men. Now, we enjoy most of the light of his 
countenance when we are favoured with the radiance of his 
truth. It has been evinced that Paul means no other fire than 
the examination of the Holy Spirit. But how are they saved — 
by the fire, who suffer the loss of their work? This it will not 
be difficult to comprehend, if we consider of what class of men 
1¢ 1s speaking. For he characterizes them as builders of the 


CHAP. v.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. o1] 


Church, whe retain their legitimate foundation, but raise the 
superstructure of unequal materials; they are such as do not 
deviate from the principal and essential articles of the faith, but 
err in inferior and less important ones, mixing their own inven- 
tions with the word of God. Such, I say, must suffer the loss 
of their work, by their inventions being destroyed; but they 
are themselves saved, yet so as by fire; that is, not because 
their ignorance and error can be approved by the Lord, but 
because they are purified from them by the grace and powe1 
of the Holy Spirit. Wherefore, whoever have corrupted the 
pure gold of the Divine word with this filth of purgatory, must 
necessarily suffer the loss of their work. 

X. Our opponents will reply, that it has been a very ancient 
opinion in the Church. Paul removes this objection when he 
comprehends even his own age in this sentence, where he 
denounces, that all must suffer the loss:of their work, who, in 
the structure of the Church, should place any thing not cor- 
responding to the foundation. When our adversaries, therefore, 
object to me, that to offer prayers for the dead has been the 
practice of more than thirteen hundred years, I inquire of 
them, on the contrary, by what word of God, by what reve- 
lation, by what example, it is sanctioned. For they are not 
only destitute of any testimonies of Scripture in favour of it, but 
none of the examples of the saints there recordede#hibit. any 
thing like it. Respecting m@nurming and funeral-offices, it con- 
tains many and sometimes long accounts; but of prayers for 
persons deceased, you cannot discover the smallest hint. But 
the greater the importance of the subject, so much the rather 
ought it to have been particularly mentioned. Even the fa- 
thers themselves, who offered up prayers for the dead, saw 
that they had neither a Divine command, nor a legitimate ex- 
ample, to justify the practice. Why, then, dd they presume to 
adopt it? In this, I say, they discovered themselves to be but 
men.; and therefore I contend, that what they did ought not 
to be enforced for the imitation of others. For since believers 
ought not to undertake any thing without an assurance of 
conscience, according to the direction of Paul, (¢) this assur 
ance is chiefly requisite in prayer. Yet it will be urged, It is 
probable that they were impelled to it by some reason. - I 
reply, Perhaps they sought some consolation to alleviate their 
sorrow, and it might appear inhuman not to give some testi- 
mony of their love towards the dead in the presence of God. 
The propensity of the human mind to this affection, all men 
know by experience. The custom, also, when received, was 
like a flame, kindling ardour in the minds of multitudes. We 


(t) Rom. xiv. 23. 


612 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 4° 


know that funeral rites have been performed to the dead among 
all nations, and in every age, and that lustrations have been 
annually made for their departed spirits. For though Satan 
has deluded foolish mortals with these fallacies, yet he has bor- 
rowed the occasion of the deception from a true principle — that 
death is not an annihilation, but a transition from this life inte 
another. Nor can it be doubted, but that even superstition 
itself convicts the heathen before the tribunal of God, for 
neglecting all the concerns of a future life, which they pro- 
fessed to believe... Now, Christians, because they would not be 
inferior to the heathen, were ashamed to perform no services for 
the dead, as though they had wholly ceased to exist. Hence 
that inconsiderate officiousness ; because if they were negligent 
in attending to funerals, feasts, and oblations, they were afraid 
they should expose themselves to great disgrace. What first 
proceeded from a perverse emulation, has been so repeatedly 
augmented by novel additions, that the principal sanctity of 
Popery consists in relieving the distresses of the dead. But the 
Scripture administers another consolation, far better and more 
substantial, when it declares that ‘“‘ Blessed are the dead which 
die in the Lord;” and adds as a reason, ‘‘that they may rest 
from their labours.” (w) But we ought not to indulge our 
own affection so far as to introduce a corrupt method of pray- 
ing into the Church. Certainly, he that has but a moderate 
share of penetration, will easily discover all that we find on this 
subject in the fathers to have been in compliance with general 
practice and vulgar ignorance. I confess, they were also in- 
volved in the error themselves, from an inconsiderate credulity 
which frequently deprives the human mind of its judgment. 
But in the mean time, the mere reading of them demonstrates 
with what hesitation they recommend prayers for the dead. 
Augustine, in his Book of Confessions, relates that Monica, -his 
mother, had vehemently entreated to be remembered in the 
celebration of the mysteries at the altar. This was the wish of 
an old woman, which her son did not examine by the standard 
of Scripture ; but from his natural affection for her, wished it to 
gain the approbation of others. But the treatise composed by 
him, on Care for the Dead, contains so many hesitations, that it 
ought by its coolness to extinguish the heat of imprudent zeal. , 
If any one desires to be an intercessor for the dead, this treatise, 
with its frigid probabilites, will certainly remove all the soli- 
citude he may have previously experienced. For this is its 
only support, that since it has been customary to pray for the 
dead, it is a duty not to be despised. But though I concede, 
that the ancient writers of the Church esteemed it a pious act 


(u) Rev. xiv. 13, 


CHAP. v.| CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 613 


to pray for the dead, yet we must always remember a rule 
which can never deceive —that it is not right for us in our 
prayers to introduce any thing of our own, but that our desires 
must be submitted to the word of God; because he chooses to 
prescribe what he desigus we should ask. Now, since there is 
not a syllable, in all the law or the gospel, which allows us to 
pray for the dead, it is a profane abuse of the name of God, 
_to attempt more than he enjoins. But that our adversaries 
may not glory, as though the ancient Church were associated 
with them in their error, I assert that there is a considerable 
difference between them. ‘The ancients preserved the memory 
of the dead, that they might not seem to have cast off all concern 
for them ; but they at the same time confessed their uncertainty 
concerning their state. Respecting purgatory they asserted 
nothing, but considered it as quite uncertain. ‘The moderns 
expect their reveries concerning purgatory to be admitted as 
unquestionable articles of faith. The fathers, in the com- 
munion of the sacred supper, merely recommended their de- 
ceased: friends to the mercy of God. ‘The Papists are inces- 
santly urging a concern for the dead; and by their importunate 
declamations cause it to be preferred to all the duties of charity. 
Besides, it would not be difficult for us to produce some testi- 
monies from the fathers which manifestly overthrow all those 
prayers for the dead which were then used. Such is this of 
Augustine ; when he teaches that all men expect the resur- 
rection of the body and eternal glory, and that every individual 
enters on the fruition of that rest which follows after death. if 
he is worthy of it when he dies. Therefore he declares that 
all the pious, as well as the prophets, apostles, and martyrs, en- 
joy a blessed repose immediately after death. If such be their 
condition, what advantage will our prayers confer on them? 
I pass over those grosser superstitions with which they have 
fascinated the minds of the simple; which nevertheless are 
innumerable, and for the most part so monstrous, that they 
cannot be varnished over by any honest pretext. I omit, also, 
that most disgraceful traffic which they licentiously carried on 
while the world was in such a state of stupidity. For I 
should never arrive at a conclusion, and I have already fur- 
nished the pious reader with sufficient to establish his con- 
science ; 


614, INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox m 


CHAPTER VI. 


THE LIFE OF A CHRISTIAN. SCRIPTURAL ARGUMENTS AND 
EXHORTATIONS TO IT. 


We have said that the end of regeneration is, that the life 
of believers may exhibit a symmetry and agreement between 
the righteousness of God and their obedience; and that thus 
they may confirm the adoption by which they are accepted as 
his children. But though the law of God contains in it that 
newness of life by which his image is restored in us, yet since 
our tardiness needs much stimulation and assistance, it will be 
useful to collect from various places of Scripture a rule for the 
reformation of the life, that they who cordially repent may not 
be bewildered in their pursuits. Now, when I undertake the 
regulation of a Christian’s life, I know that I am entering on 
an argument various and copious, and the magnitude of which 
might fill a large volume, if I designed a complete discussion 
of every part of it. For we see to what great prolixity the 
fathers have extended the exhortations composed by them 
only on single virtues; and that without any excessive loqua- 
city ; for, whatever virtue it is intended to recommend in an 
oration, the copiousness of the matter naturally produces such 
a diffusiveness of style, that unless you have spoken largely, 
you seem not to have done justice to the subject. But my 
design is not to extend the plan of life, which I am now about 
to deliver, so far as particularly to discourse on each distinct 
virtue, and expatiate into exhortations. 'These things may be 
sought in the writings of others, especially in the homilies of 
the fathers. It will be sufficient for me if I point out a 
method by which a pious man may be conducted to the right 
end in the regulation of his life, and briefly assign a universal 
rule, by which he may properly estimate his duties. There 
will, perhaps, at some future period be a suitable opportunity 
for declamations ; or I shall leave to others an office for which 
I am not calculated. Iam naturally fond of brevity ; and, per- 
haps, were I desirous of speaking in a more copious manner, I 
should not succeed. And if a more prolix method of teaching 
were most acceptable, yet I should scarcely be inclined to 
make the trial. The plan of the present work, however, 
requires me to treat a simple doctrine with all possible brevity. 
As the philosophers have certain principles of rectitude and 
honour, whence they deduce particular duties and the whole 
circle of virtues, so the Scripture is not without its order in 


CHAP. VI. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 615 


this respect, but maintains an economy superlatively beautiful, 
and far more certain, than all the systems of the philosophers. 
There is only this difference —that, the philosophers being 
ambitious men, they have sedulously affected an exquisite 
perspicuity of method, in order to make an ostentatious display 
of their ingenious dexterity. But the Spirit, whose teaching 
is void of affectation, has not so exactly or perpetually observed 
a methodical plan; which, nevertheless, by using it in some 
places, he sufficiently indicates ought not to be neglected by us. 

II. This Scripture plan, of which we are now treating, con- 
sists chiefly in these two things —the® first, that a love of 
righteousness, to which we have otherwise no natural propen- 
sity, be instilled and introduced into our hearts; the second, 
that a rule be prescribed to us, to prevent our taking any de- 
vious steps in the race of righteousness. Now, inthe recommen- 
dation of righteousness, it uses a great number of very excel- 
lent arguments, many of which we have before noticed on 
different occasions, and some we shall briefly touch on in this 
place. With what better foundation can it begin, than when 
it admonishes us that we ought to be holy, because our God is 
holy? (w) For when we were dispersed like scattered sheep, 
and lost in the labyrinth of the world, he gathered us together 
again, that he might associate us to himself. When we hear 
any mention of our union with God, we should remember, 
that holiness must be the bond of it; not that we attain com- 
munion with him by the merit of holiness, (since it is rather 
necessary for us, in the first place, to adhere to him, in order 
that, being endued with his holiness, we may follow whither he 
calls;) but because it is a peculiar property of his glory not to 
have any intercourse with iniquity and uncleanness. Where- 
fore also it teaches, that this is the end of our vocation, which 
it is requisite for us always to keep in view, if we desire to 
correspond to the design of God in calling us. For to what 
purpose was it that we were delivered from the iniquity and 
pollution of the world, in which we had been immerged, if we 
permit ourselves to wallow in them as long as we live? Be- 
sides, it also admonishes us that, to be numbered among the 
people of God, we must inhabit the holy city Jerusalem ; (7) 
which, he having consecrated it to himself, cannot without 
impiety be profaned by impure inhabitants. Whence these 
expressions: ‘‘ He shall abide in the tabernacle of the Lord, that 
walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness,” &c., (y) because 
it is very unbecoming the sanctuary which he inhabits, to ze 
rendered as filthy as a stable. 


(w) Lev. xix.2. 1 Peter i. 16. (z) Isaiah xxxv. 10 
(y) Psalm xv. 1,2; xxiv. 3, 4. 


616 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 11. 


III. And as a further incitement to us, it shows, that as God 
the Father has reconciled us to himself in Christ, so he has 
exhibited to us in him a pattern, to which it is his will that we 
should be conformed. ({z) Now, let those who are of opinion 
that the philosophers have the only just and orderly systems of 
moral philosophy, show me, in any of their works, a more ex- 
cellent economy than that which I have stated. When they 
intend to exhort us to the sublimest virtue, they advance no 
argument but that we ought to live agreeably to nature; but 
the Scripture deduces its exhortation from the true source, 
when it not only enjotas us to refer our life to God the author 
of it, to whom it belongs, but, after having taught us, that we 
are degenerated from the original state im which we were 
created, adds, that Christ, by whom we have been reconciled 
to God, is proposed to us as an example, whose character we 
should exhibit in our lives. What can be required more effica- 
cious than this one consideration? mdeed, what can be re- 
quired besides? For if the Lord has adopted us as his sons on 
this condition, —that we exhibit in our life an imitation of 
Christ the bond of our adoption, — unless we addict and devote 
ourselves to nghteousness, we not only most perfidiously revolt 
from our Creator, but also abjure him as our Saviour. The 
Scripture derives matter of exhortation from all the blessmgs 
of God which it recounts to us, and from all the parts of our 
salvation. It argues, that since God has discovered himself as 
a Father to us, we must be convicted of the basest ingratitude, 
unless we, on our part, manifest ourselves to be his children; 
that since Christ has purified us in the laver of his blood, and 
has communicated this purification by baptism, it does not 
become us to be defiled with fresh pollution; that since he 
has united us to his body, we should, as his members, soli- 
citously beware lest we asperse ourselves with any blemish or 
disgrace ; that since he who is our Head has ascended to 
heaven, we ought to divest ourselves of all terrestrial affection, 
and aspire thither with all our soul; that since the Holy 
Spirit has dedicated us as temples to God, we should use our 
utmost exertions, that the glory of God may be displayed by 
us; and ought not to allow ourselves to be profaned with the 
pollution of sin; that since both our soul and our body are 
destined to heavenly incorruption and a never-fading crown, 
we ought to exert our most strenuous efforts to preserve 
them pure and uncorrupt till the day of the Lord. These, } 
say, are the best foundations for the proper regulation of the 
life, such as we cannot find in the philosophers; who, in the 
recommendation of virtue, never rise above the natural dignity 
of man. 


(z) Rom. vi. 4, &c.; viii. 29. 


CHAP. VI.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 617 


IV. This is a proper place to address those who have no- 
thing but the name and the symbol of Christ, and yet would be 
denominated Christians. But with what face do they glory in 
his sacred. name? For none have any intercourse with Christ 
but those who have received the true knowledge of him from 
the word of the gospel. Now, the apostle denies that any have 
rightly learned Christ, who have not been taught that they 
must put off the old man, which is corrupt according to the 
deceitful lusts, and put on Christ.(@) Their knowledge of 
Christ, then, is proved to be a false and injurious pretence, with 
whatever eloquence and volubility they may talk concerning. 
the gospel. For it isa doctrine not of the tongue, but of the 
hfe; and is not apprehended merely with the understanding 
and memory, like other sciences, but is then only received, 
when it possesses the whole soul, and finds a seat and residence 
in the inmost affection of the heart. Let them, therefore, 
either cease to insult God by boasting themselves to be what 
they are not, or show themselves disciples not unworthy of 
Christ, their Master. We have allotted the first place to the 
doctrine which contains our religion, because it is the origin of 
our salvation; but that it may not be unprofitable to us, it | 
must be transfused into our breast, pervade our manners, and 
thus transform us into itself. If the philosophers are justly 
incensed against, and banish with disgrace from their society, 
those who, while they profess an art which ought to be a rule 
of life, convert it into a sophistical loquacity, — with how much 
better reason may we detest those sophists who are contented 
to have the gospel on their lips, whilst its efficacy ought to 
penetrate the inmost affections of the heart, to dwell in the 
soul, and to affect the whole man with a hundred times more 
energy than the frigid exhortations of the philosophers ! 

V. Yet I would not insist upon it as absolutely necessary, 
that the manners of a Christian should breathe nothing but the 
perfect gospel; which, nevertheless, ought both to be wished 
and to be aimed at. But I do not so rigorously require 
evangelical perfection as not to acknowledge as a Christian, 
one who has not yet attained to it; for then all would be 
excluded from the Church ; since no man can be found who is 
not still at a great distance from it; and many have hitherto 
made but a very small progress, whom it wyuld, nevertheless, 
be unjust to reject. What then? let us set before our eyes 
that mark, to which alone our pursuit must be directed. Let 
that be prescribed as the goal towards which we must ear- 
nestly tend. For it is not lawful for you to make such a com- 
promise with God, as to undertake a part of the duties prescribed 


(a) Eph. iv. 20, &c. 
VOL. I. 7 


618 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 11. 


to you in his word, and to omit part of them, at your own 
pleasure. For, in the first place, he every where recommends 
integrity as a principal branch of his worship; by which he 
intends a sincere simplicity of heart, free from all guile and. 
falsehood ; the opposite of which is a double heart ; as though 
it had been said, that the beginning of alife of uprightness is 
spiritual, when the internal affection of the mind is unfeignedly 
devoted to God in the-cultivation of holiness and righteousness. 
But since no man in this terrestrial and corporeal prison has 
strength sufficient to press forward in his course with a due 
degree of alacrity, and the majority are oppressed with such 
great debility, that they stagger and halt, and even creep on 
the ground, and so make very inconsiderable advances, —let us 
every one proceed according to our small ability, and prosecute 
the journey we have begun. No man will be so unhappy, but 
that he may every day make some progress, however small. 
Therefore, let us not cease to strive, that we may be in- 
cessantly advancing in the way of the Lord; nor let us despair 
on account of the smallness of our success; for however our 
success may not correspond to our wishes, yet our labour is not 
lost, when this day surpasses the preceding one; provided that, 
with sincere simplicity, we keep our end in view, and press 
forward to the goal, not practising self-adulation, nor indulging 
our own evil propensities, but perpetually exerting our en- 
deavours after increasing degrees of amelioration, till we shall 
have arrived at a perfection of goodness, which, indeed, we seek 
and pursue as long as we live, and shall then attain, when, di- 
vested of all corporeal infirmity, we shall be admitted by God 
into complete communion with him. 


CHAPTER VIL. 
SUMMARY OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. SELF-DENIAL. 


AutTHoueH the Divine law contains a most excellent and well- 
arranged plan forthe regulation of life, yet it has pleased the 
heavenly Teacher to conform men by a more accurate doctrine 
to the rule which he had prescribed in the law. And the prin- 
ciple of that doctrine is this—that it is the duty of believers 
to ‘present their bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto 
God ;”(b) and that in this consists the legitimate worship of 


(b) Rom. xii. 1. 


CHAP. vit] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 619 


him. Hence is deduced an argument for exhorting them, “ Be 
not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed by the 
renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that will of 
God.” ‘This is a very important consideration, that we are 
consecrated and dedicated to God; that we may not hereafter 
think, speak, meditate, or do any thing but witha view to his 
glory. For that which is sacred cannot, without great injustice 
towards him, be applied to unholy uses. If we are not our 
own, but the Lord’s, it is manifest both what error we must 
avoid, and to what end all the actions of our lives are to be di- 
rected. We are not our own; therefore neither our reason nor 
our will should predominate in our deliberations and actions. 
We are not our own; therefore let us not propose it as our 
end, to seek what may be expedient for us according to the 
flesh. We are not our own; therefore let us, as far as possible, 
forget ourselves and all things that are ours. On the contrary, 
we are God’s ; to him, therefore, let us live and die. We are 
God’s; therefore let his wisdom and will preside in all our 
actions. We are God’s; towards him, therefore, as our only 
legitimate end, let every part of our lives be directed. O, how 
great a proficiency has that man made, who, having been taught 
that he is not his own, has taken the sovereignty and go- 
vernment of himself from his own reason, to surrender it to 
God! For as compliance with their own inclinations leads 
men most effectually to ruin, so to place no dependence on our 
own knowledge or will, but merely to follow the guidance of 
the Lord, is the only way of safety. Let this, then, be the first 
step, to depart from ourselves, that we may apply all the 
vigour of our faculties to the service of the Lord. By service 
I mean, not that only which consists in verbal obedience, but 
that by which the human mind, divested of its natural car- 
nality, resigns itself wholly to the direction of the Divine Spirit. 
Of this transformation, which Paul styles a renovation of the 
mind, (c) though it is the first entrance into life, all the philo- 
sophers were ignorant. F'or they set up Reason as the sole 
directress of man; they think that she is exclusively to be at- 
tended to; in short, to her alone they assign the government of 
the conduct. But the Christian philosophy commands her to 
give place and submit to the Holy Spirit; so that now the 
man himself lives not, but carries about Christ living and 
reigning within him. (d) 

Il. Hence also that other consequence, that we should seek 
not our own things, but those which are agreeable to the will 
of the Lord, and conducive to the promotion of his glory. 
This also argues a great proficiency, that almost forgetting our- 


(c) Eph. iv. 28. (d) Gal. ii. 20. 


620 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 11. 


selves, and certainly neglecting all selfish regards, we endea- 
vour faithfully to devote our attention to God and his com- 
mandments. For when the Scripture enjoins us to discard all 
private and selfish considerations, it not only erases from our 
minds the cupidity of wealth, the lust of power, and the favour 
of men, but also eradicates ambition and all appetite after 
human glory, with other more secret plagues. Indeed, a 
Christian man ought to be so disposed and prepared, as to 
reflect that he has to do with God every moment of his life. 
Thus, as he will measure all his actions by his will and deter- 
mination, so he will refer the whole bias of his mind religiously 
to him. For he who has learned to regard God in every 
undertaking, is also raised above every vain imagination. ‘This 
is that denial of ourselves, which Christ, from the commence- 
ment of their course, so diligently enjoins on his disciples; 
which, when it has once obtained the governrhent of the 
heart, leaves room neither for pride, haughtiness, or ostenta- 
tion, nor for avarice, libidinousness, luxury, effeminacy, or any 
other evils which are the offspring of self-love. On the con- 
trary, wherever it does not reign, there either the grossest vices 
are indulged without the least shame; or, if there exist any 
appearance of virtue, it is vitiated by a depraved passion for 
glory. Show me, if you can, a single individual, who, unless 
he has renounced himself according to the command of the 
Lord, is voluntarily disposed to practise virtue among men. 
For all who have not been influenced by this disposition, have 
followed virtue merely from the love of praise. And even those 
of the philosophers who have ever contended that virtue is 
desirable for its own sake, have been inflated with so much ar- 
rogance, that it is evident they desired virtue for no other reason 
than to furnish them occasion for the exercise of pride. But 
God is so far from being delighted, either with those who 
are ambitious of popular praise, or with hearts so full of pride 
and presumption, that he pronounces “ they have their reward” . 
in this world, and represents harlots and publicans as nearer to 
the kingdom of heaven than such persons. But we have not 
yet clearly stated the number and -magnitude of the obstacles 
by which a man is impeded in the pursuit of that which is 
right, as long as he has refrained from all self-denial. For it is 
an ancient and true observation, that there is a world of vices 
concealed in the soul of man. Nor can you find any othe 
remedy than to deny yourself and discard all selfish consi- 
derations, and to devote your whole attention to the pursuit of 
those things which the Lord requires of you, and which ought 
to be pursued for this sole reason, because they are pleasing 
to him. 

Ul. The same apostle, in another place, gives a more distinct, 


* 


CHAP. vit. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 621 


though a brief, representation of all the parts of a well-regulated 
life. ‘The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared 
to all men, teaching us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly 
lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this pre- 
sent world; looking for that. blessed hope, and the glorious 
appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ, who 
gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniqui- 
ty, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good 
works.” (e) For after having proposed the grace of God to 
animate us, in order to prepare the way for us truly to worship 
God, he removes two obstacles, which are our chief impedi- 
ments ; first, ungodliness, to which we have naturally too 
strong a propensity, and secondly, worldly lusts, which extend 
themselves further. The term “ ungodliness’”’ not only denotes 
superstitions, but comprehends also every thing that is repug- 
nant to the serious fear of God. And “worldly lusts’? mean 
the carnal affections. ‘Therefore he enjoins us, with reference 
to both tables of the law, to forsake our former propensities, 
and to renounce all the dictates of our own reason and will. 
He reduces all the actions of life to three classes — sobriety, 
righteousness, and godliness. ‘‘ Sobriety ” undoubtedly denotes 
chastity and temperance, as well as a pure and frugal use of 
temporal blessings, and patience under poverty. ‘ Righteous- 
ness’’ includes all the duties of equity, that every man may 
receive what is his due. ‘‘Godliness” separates us from the 
pollutions of the world, and by true holiness unites us to God. 
When these virtues are indissolubly connected, they produce 
absolute perfection. But since nothing is more difficult than to 
forsake all carnal considerations, to subdue and renounce our 
appetites, to devote ourselves to God and our brethren, and to live 
the life of angels amidst the corruptions of the world, — in order 
to extricate our minds from every snare, Paul recalls our at- 
tention to the hope of a blessed immortality ; apprizing us that 
our efforts are not in vain; because, as Christ once appeared 
as a Redeemer, so, at his final advent, he will manifest the 
benefits of the salvation he has obtained. Thus he dispels the 
fascinations which blind us, and prevent our aspiring with be- 
coming ardour to the glories of heaven, and at the same time 
teaches us that we must live as strangers and pilgrims in the 
world, that we may not lose the heavenly inheritance. 

IV. In these words we perceive, that self-denial relates partly 
to men, but partly, and indeed principally, to God. For when 
the Scripture enjoins us to conduct ourselves in such a manner 
towards men, as in honour to prefer one another, and faithfully 
to devote our whole attention to the promotion of their ad- 


(e) Titus ii. 11—14. 


622, INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 11. 


vantage, (f) it gives such commands as our heart can by no 
means receive, without having been previously divested of its 
natural bias. For we are all so blinded and fascinated with 
self-love, that every one imagines he has a just right to exalt 
himself, and to undervalue all others who stand in competition 
with him. If God has conferred on us any valuable qualifi- 
cation, relying thereon, our hearts are immediately lifted up; 
and we not only swell, but almost burst with pride. ‘The 
vices in which we abound, we sedulously conceal from others, 
and flatter ourselves with the pretence that they are diminutive 
and trivial, and even sometimes embrace them as virtues. If 
the same talents which we admire in ourselves, or even superior 
ones, appear in others, in order that we may not be obliged to 
acknowledge their superiority, we depreciate and diminish them 
with the utmost malignity: if they have any vices, not content 
to notice them with severe and sharp animadversions, we 
odiously amplify them. Hence that insolence, that every one 
of us, as if exempted from the common lot, is desirous of pre- 
eminence above the rest of mankind ; and severely and haughti- 
ly contemns every man, or at least despises him as an inferior. 
The poor yield to the rich, plebeians to nobles, servants to 
masters, the illiterate to the learned; but there is no man who 
does not cherish within him some idea of his own excellence. 
Thus all men, in flattering themselves, carry, as it were, a king- 
dom in their own breast; for arrogating to themselves the height 
of self-gratulation, they pass censure on the understandings and 
conduct of others; but if any contention arises, it produces an 
eruption of the poison. For many discover some gentleness, 
as long as they find every thing pleasant and amiable ; but how 
many are there who preserve the same constant course of 
good humour when they are disturbed and irritated? Nor is 
there any other remedy, than the eradication fromthe inmost 
recesses of the heart of this most noxious pest of ambition and 
self-love ; as it is indeed eradicated by the doctrine of the 
Scripture. For if we attend to its instructions, we must re- 
member, that the talents with which God has favoured us, are 
not excellences originating from ourselves, but free gifts of 
God; of which if any are proud, they betray their ingratitude. 
‘‘Who maketh thee to differ?” saith Paul. ‘Now, if thou 
didst receive all things, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst 
not received them?” (g) In the next place, by assiduous 
observation and acknowledgment of our faults, we must recall 
our minds to humility. Thus there will remain in us nothing 
to inflate us, but great reason for dejection. On the other 
hand, we are enjoined, whatever gifts of God we perceive in 


(f) Rom. xii. 10. Phil. i. 4. (g) 1 Cor. iv. 7. 


~ 


CHAP. vil.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 623 


others, to revere and esteem them, so as to honour those in 
whom they reside. For it would betray great wickedness in 
us to rob them of that honour which God has given them. 
Their faults we are taught to overlook, not indeed to encourage 
them by adulation, but never on account of them to insult those 
whom we ought to cherish with benevolence and -honour. 
The result of attention to these directions will be, that with 
whomsoever we are concerned, we shall conduct ourselves not 
only with moderation and good humour, but with civility and 
friendship. For we shall never arrive at true meekness by any 
other way, than by having our hearts imbued with self-abase- 
-ment and a respect for others. 

V. How extremely difficult it is for you to discharge your 
duty in seeking the advantage of your neighbour! Unless you 
quit all selfish considerations, and, as it were, lay aside yourself, 
you will effect nothing in this duty. For how can you perform 
those which Paul inculcates as works of charity, unless you 
renounce yourself, and devote yourself wholly to serve others? 
‘‘ Charity,” says he, ‘“suffereth long, and is kind; charity en- 
vieth not ; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth 
not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily 
provoked,” &c.(h) If this be all that is required, that we seek 
not our own, yet we must do no small violence to nature, which 
so strongly inclines us to the exclusive love of ourselves, that it 
does not so easily permit us to neglect ourselves and our own 
concerns in order to be vigilant for the advantage of others, and 
even voluntarily to recede from our right, to resign it to 
another. But the Scripture leads us to this, admonisheg us, 
that whatever favours we obtain from the Lord, we are in- 
trusted with them on this condition, that they should be 
applied to the common benefit of the Church; and that, there- 
fore, the legitimate use of all his favours, is a liberal and kind 
communication of them to others. ‘There cannot be imagined 
a more certain rule, or a more powerful exhortation to the ob- 
servance of it, than when we are taught, that all the blessings 
we enjoy are Divine deposits, committed to our trust on this 
condition, that they should be dispensed for the benefit of our 
neighbours. But the Scripture goes still further, when it com- 
pares them to the powers with which the members of the 
human body are endued. For no member has its power for 
itself, nor applies it ‘to its private use; but transfuses it among 
its fellow-members, receiving no advantage from it but what 
proceeds from the common convenience of the whole body. 
So, whatever ability a pious man possesses, he ought to possess 
it for his brethren, consulting his own private interest in no 


(h) 1 Cor. xiii. d—8. 


624, INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK III. 


way inconsistent with a cordial attention to the common edifi- 
cation of the Church. Let this, then, be our rule for benignity 
and beneficence,—that whatever God has conferred on us, 
which enables us to assist our neighbour, we are the stewards 
of it, and must one day render an account of our stewardship ; 
and that the only right dispensation of what has been com- 
mitted to us, is that which is regulated by the law of love. 
Thus we shall not only always connect the study to promote 
the advantage of others with a concern for our own private 
interests, but shall prefer the good of others to our own. ‘T'o 
teach us that the dispensation of the gifts we receive from 
heaven ought to be regulated by this law, God anciently en- 
joined the same even in regard to the smallest bounties of his 
liberality. For he commanded the people to offer to him the first- 
fruits of the corn, as a solemn avowal that it was unlawful for 
them to enjoy any blessings not previously consecrated to him. 
And if the gifts of God are not sanctified to us till after we 
have with our own hands dedicated them to their Author, that 
must evidently be a sinful abuse which is unconnected with 
such a dedication. But tn vain would you attempt to enrich 
the Lord by a communication of your possessions. ‘Therefore, 
since your “goodness extendeth not to him,” (7) as the Psalmist 
says, you must exercise it “towards the saints that are in the 
earth ;”’ and alms are compared to sacred oblations, to show 
that these exercises of charity under the gospel, correspond to 
those offerings under the law. | 
VI. Moreover, that we may not be weary of doing good, 
whieh otherwise would of necessity soon be the case, we must 
add also the other character mentioned by the apostle, that 
‘‘ charity suffereth long, and is not easily provoked.” ‘The Lord 
commands us to do « "good unto all men,” (/) universally, a 
great part of whom, estimated according to their own merits, 
are very undeserving ; ; but here the Scripture assists us with an 
excellent rule, when it inculcates, that we must not regard the 
intrinsic merit of men, but must consider the image of God in 
them, to which we owe all possible honour and love ; but that 
this image is most carefully to be observed in them “ who are 
of the household of faith,” (2) inasmuch as it is renewed and 
restored by the Spirit of Christ. Whoever, therefore, is pre- 
sented to you that needs your kind offices, you have no reason 
to refuse him your assistance. Say that he is a stranger; yet 
the Lord has impressed on him a character which ought to be 
familiar to you; for which reason he forbids you to despise 
your own flesh. (m) Say that he is contemptible and worth- 
less; but the Lord shows him to be one whom he has deigned 


(t) Psalm xvi. 2,3 (k) Heb. xii.16. (2) Gal. vi. 10. (m) Isaiah lviii. 7 


CHAP. VII.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 625 


to grace with hisown image. Say that you are obliged to him for 
no services; but God has made him, as it were, his substitute, to 
whom you acknowledge yourself to be under obligations for nu-: 
merous and important benefits. Say that he is unworthy of your 
making the smallest exertion on his account ; but the image of 
God, by which he is recommended to you, deserves your surren- 
der of yourself and all that you possess. If he not oniy has de- 
served no favour, but, on the contrary, has provoked you with 
injuries and insults, — even this is no just reason why you should 
cease to embrace him with your affection, and to perform to him 
the offices of love. He has deserved, you will say, very different 
treatment from me. But what has the Lord deserved? who, when 
he commands you to forgive men all their offences against you, 
certainly intends that they should be charged to himself. 'This 
is the only way of attaining that which is not only difficult, 
but utterly repugnant to the nature of man —to love them who 
hate us,(m) to requite injuries with kindnesses, and to return 
blessings for curses. (0) We should remember, that we must 
not reflect on the wickedness of men, but contemplate the 
Divine image in them; which, concealing and obliterating 
their faults, by its beauty and dignity allures us to embrace 
them in the arms of our love. 

- VIL. This mortification, therefore, will not take place in us 
unless we fulfil all the duties of charity. These are fulfilled, not 
by him who merely performs all the external offices of charity, 
even without the omission of one, but by him who does this 
from a sincere principle of love. For it may happen, that a 
man may fully discharge his duty to all men, with respect to 
external actions, and, at the same time, be very far from dis- 
charging it in the nght way. For you may see some men 
who would be thought extremely hberal, and-yet never bestow 
any thing without upbraiding, either by pride of countenance, or 
by insolence of language. And we are sunk to such a depth of 
calamity in this unhappy age, that scarcely any alms are given, 
at least by the majority of mankind, but in a haughty and con- 
temptuous manner —a corruption which ought not to have been 
tolerated even among heathen; for of Christians there is some- 
thing further required, than to display a cheerfulness of coun- 
tenance, and to render their benefactions amiable by. civility of 
language. In the first place, they ought to imagine themselves 
in the situation of the person who needs their assistance, and to 
commiserate his case, just as though they themselves felt and 
suffered the same; so that they may be impelled, by a sense of 
mercy and humanity, to afford assistance to him as readily as 
if it were to themselves. He who comes to the assistance of 


(n) Matt. v. 44. (0) Luke xvii. 3, 4. 


VOL. I, 79 
* 


626 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 111. 


his brethren under the influence of such a disposition, not only 
will not contaminate his services with arrogance or reproach, 
but will neither despise his brother who is the object of his 
beneficence, as needing assistance, nor domineer over him as © 
under an obligation to him; no more, for instance, than we 
insult a diseased member, for whose restoration the rest of 
the body labours, or suppose it to be under particular obliga- 
tions to the other members, because it has needed more as- 
sistance than it returned. For the communication of services 
between the members of the body, is esteemed to be in no sense 
gratuitous, but rather a discharge of that which, being due by 
the law of nature, it would be monstrous to refuse. And for 
this reason, he will not suppose himself to have discharged all 
his duty, who has performed one kind of service ; as it generally 
happens, that a rich man, after having bestowed some part of 
his property, leaves other burdens to be borne by other persons, 
and considers himself as exempted from all concern about them. 
On the contrary, every man will reflect with himself, that how- 
ever great he may be, he is a debtor to his neighbour, and that 
no bounds should be fixed to the exercise of beneficence towards. 
them, except when his ability fails, which, as far as it extends, 
ought to be limited by the rule of charity. 

VIII. Let us deseribe again, more at large, the principal 
branch of self-denial, which we have said relates to God ; and 
indeed many observations have already been made concerning 
it, which it would be needless to repeat: it will be sufficient to 
show how it habituates us to equanimity and patience. First, 
therefore, in seeking the convenience or tranquillity of the 
present life, the Scripture calls us to this point ; that resigning 
ourselves and all that we have to the will of God, we should 
surrender to him the affections of our heart, to be conquered 
and reduced to subjection. ‘'T'o desire wealth and honours, to be 
ambitious of power, to accumulate riches, to amass all those 
vanities which appear conducive to magnificence and pomp, 
our passion is furious, and our cupidity unbounded. On the 
contrary, to poverty, obscurity, and meanness, we feel a won- 
derful fear and abhorrence, which stimulate us to avoid them 
by all possible means. Hence we may see, how restless the 
minds of all those persons are, who regulate their lives accord- 
ing to their own reason; how many arts they try, and with 
what exertions they fatigue themselves, in order, on the one 
hand, to obtain the objects of ambition or avarice, on the other, 
to avoid poverty and meanness. Pious men, therefore, that 
they may not be involved in such snares, must pursue the 
following course: First, let them neither desire, nor hope, nor 
entertain a thought of prosperity, from any other cause than the 
Divine blessing; and on that let them securely and confident- 


CHAP. VII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 627 


ly depend. For however the flesh may appear to itself to be 
abundantly sufficient, when it either attempts by its own in- 
dustry, or strenuous exertions, to attain honours and wealth, or 
is assisted by the favour of man, — yet it is certain, that all these 
things are nothing, and that we shall obtain no advantage, 
either by ingenuity or by labour, but as far as the Lord shall 
prosper both. On the contrary, his benediction alone finds a 
way, even through all impediments, so as to bring all our affairs 
to a joyful and prosperous conclusion. And though we may, 
for the most part, be able without it to obtain for ourselves 
some degree of opulence and glory, as we daily behold impious 
men accumulating great honours and enormous wealth, yet, 
since those who are under the curse of God enjoy not even the 
smallest particle of happiness, we shall acquire nothing without 
the Divine blessing, which will not eventually prove a calamity 
tous. And that is by no means to be desired, the acquisition 
of which renders-‘men more miserable. 

IX. Therefore, if we believe that all the cause of desirable 
prosperity consists in the Divine benediction alone, without 
which miseries and calamities of every kind await us, it fol- 
lows also, that we should not passionately strive for wealth and 
honours, either relying on our own diligence or acuteness of 
understanding, or depending on the favour of men, or confiding 
in a vain imagination of chance ; but that we should always 
regard the Lord, to be conducted by his direction to whatsoever 
lot he has provided for us. The consequence of this will be, 
in the first place, that we shall not rush forward to seize on 
wealth or honours by unlawful actions, by deceitful and cri- 
minal arts, by rapacity and injury of our neighbours ; but shall 
confine ourselves to the pursuit of those interests, which will 
not seduce us from the path of innocence. For who can 
expect the assistance of the Divine benediction, amidst fraud, 
rapine, and other iniquitous acts? For as that follows him 
only whose thoughts are pure, and whose actions are upright, 
so it calls away all those by whom it is sought, from irregular 
thoughts and corrupt practices. In the next place, we shall 
find a restraint laid upon us, to keep us from being inflamed 
with an inordinate desire of growing rich, and from ambitiously 
aspiring after honours. For with what face can any man con- 
fide in the assistance of God, towards obtaining things which 
he desires in opposition to the Divine word? Far be it from 
God to follow with the aid of his blessing, what he curses with 
his mouth. Lastly, if our success be not equal to our wishes 
and hopes, yet we shall be restrained from impatience, and 
from execrating our condition, whatever it may be; because we 
shall know, that this would be murmuring against God, at 
‘ whose pleasure are dispensed riches and poverty, honour and 


628 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 111 


contempt. In short, he who shall repose himself, in the man- 
her we have mentioned, on the Divine biessing, will neither 
hunt after the objects violently coveted by men in general, by 
evil methods, from which he will expect no advantage; nor 
will he impute any prosperous event to himself, and to his own 
duligence, industry, or good fortune ; but will acknowledge God 
to be the author of it. If, while the affairs of others are flou- 
rishing, he makes but a small progress, or even moves in a 
retrograde direction, yet he will bear his poverty with more 
equanimity and moderation, than any profane man would feel 
with a mediocrity of success, which would merely be inferior 
to his wishes; possessing, indeed, a consolation in which he 
may enjoy more tranquil satisfaction, than in the zenith of 
opulence or power; because he considers, that his affairs are 
ordered by the Lord in such a manner as*is conducive to his 
salvation. This, we see, was the disposition of David, who, 
while he follows God, surrenders himself to his government, 
and declares, that he is “‘as a child that is weaned of his 
mother; neither do I exercise myself,” says he, ‘‘in great mat- 
ters, or in things too high for me.” ( p) 

X. Nor is this the only instance in which pious persons 
should feel such tranquillity and patience; the same state of 
mind ought to be extended to all the events to which the 
present life is exposed. Therefore no man has rightly re- 
nounced himself, but he who has wholly resigned himself to 
the Lord, so as to leave all the parts of his hfe to be governed 
by his will. He whose mind is thus composed, whatever may 
befall him, will neither think himself miserable, nor invidiously 
complain against God on account of his lot. The great ne- 
cessity of this disposition will appear, if we consider the nu- 
merous accidents to which we are subject. Diseases of various 
kinds frequently attack us: at one time, the pestilence is raging ; 
at another, we are cruelly harassed with the calamities of war ; 
at another time, frost or hail, devouring the hopes of the year, 
produces sterility, which brings us to penury; a wife, parents, 
children, or other relatives, are snatched away by death; our 
dwelling is consumed by a fire; these are the events, on the 
occurrence of which, men curse this life, or their natal day, 
execrate heaven and earth, reproach God, and, as they are elo- 
quent to blaspheme, accuse him of injustice and cruelty. But 
it behoves a believer, even in these events, to contemplate the 
clemency and truly paternal goodness of God. Wherefore, if he 
sees his relatives removed, and his house rendered asolitary place, 
he must not cease to bless the Lord, but rather have recourse to 
this reflection: Yet the grace of the Lord, which inhabits my 


(p) Psalm exxxi. 1, 2. 


i 


CHAP. Vul.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 629 


house, will not leave it desolate. Or if he sees his crops bitten 
or destroyed by frost, or beaten down by hail, and famine 
threateuing him, yet he will not sink imto despondency or 
displeasure against God, but will abide in this confidence — We 
are under the guardian care of God, we are “the sheep of his 
pasture ;”’(q) he therefore will supply us with food even in 
seasons of the greatest barrenness. If he shall be afflicted with 
disease, even then he will not be so far discouraged by the bitter- 
ness of his pain, as to break out into impatience, and to complain 
against God; but will rather strengthen his patience by a con- 
sideration of the justice and lenity of the Divine correction. 
Finally, whatever may happen, knowing it to be ordained by 
the Lord, he will receive it with a placid and grateful heart, 
that he may not be guilty of contumaciously resisting his au- 
thority, to whose power he has once resigned himself and all 
that belongs to‘him. Far, therefore, from the heart of a Christ- 
ian man be that foolish and most wretched consolation of the 
heathen, who, to fortify their minds against adversity, imputed it 
to Fortune ; with whom they esteemed it foolish to be displeased, 
because she was thoughtless and rash, and blindly wounded 
without discrimination the worthy and the unworthy. On the 
contrary, the rule of piety is, that God alone is the arbiter and 
governor of all events, both prosperous and adverse, and that he 
does not proceed with inconsiderate impetuosity, but dispenses 
‘to us blessings and calamities with the most systematic justice. 


CHAPTER VIII. 
BEARING THE CROSS, WHICH IS A BRANCH OF SELF-DENIAL 


Bur it becomes a pious mind to rise still higher, even to that 
to which Christ calls his disciples; that every one should 
‘‘take up his cross.” (7) For all whom the Lord has chosen 
and honoured with admission into the society of his saints, 
ought to prepare themselves for a life, hard, laborious, unquiet, 
and replete with numerous and various calamities. It is the 
will of their heavenly Father to exercise them in this manner, 
that he may have a certain proof of those that belong to him. 
Having begun with Christ his first begotten Son, he pursues 
this method towards all his children. For though Christ was 
above all others the beloved Son, in whom the Father was. 


(q) Psalm 1xxix. 13. (r) Matt. xvi. 24. 


630 ; INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK IIL 


always well pleased, (s) yet we see how little indulgence and 
tenderness he experienced; so that it may be truly said, not 
only that he was perpetually burdened with a cross during his 
residence on earth, but that his whole life was nothing but a 
kind of perpetual cross. The apostle assigns the reason, that 
it was necessary for him to “learn obedience by the things 
which he suffered.”’(¢) Why, then, should we exempt our- 
selves from that condition, to which it behoved Christ our 
head to be subject; especially since his submission was on our 
account, that he might exhibit to us an example of patience in 
his own person? Wherefore the apostle teaches, that it is the 
destination of all the children of God ‘to be conformed to 
him.” (w) It is also a source of signal consolation to us, in 
unpleasant and severe circumstances, which are esteemed ad- ~ 
versities and calamities, that we partake of the sufferings of 
Christ ; that as he from a labyrinth of all evils entered into the 
glory of heaven, so we are conducted forward through various 
tribulations to the same glory ;(w) for Paul teaches us, that 
when we “know the fellowship of his sufferings,” we also 
apprehend “the power of his resurrection ;” that while we are 
‘conformed to his death, we are thus prepared to partake of his 
glorious resurrection. (¢) How much is this adapted to allevi- 
ate all the bitterness of the cross, that the more we are afflicted - 
by adversities, our fellowship with Christ is so much the mere 
certainly confirmed! By this communion the suffermgs them- 
selves not only become blessings to us, but afford considerable 
assistance towards promoting our salvation. 

II. Besides, our Lord was under no necessity of bearing the 
cross, except to testify and prove his obedience to his Father ; 
but there are many reasons which render it necessary for us to 
live under a continual cross. Furst, as we are naturally too 
prone to attribute every thing to our flesh, unless we have, as 
it were, ocular demonstration of our imbecility, we easily form 
an extravagant estimate of our strength, presuming that what- 
ever may happen, it will remain undaunted and invincible 
amidst all difficulties. This inflates us with a foolish, vain, 
carnal confidence ; relying on which, we become contuma- 
cious and proud, in opposition to Ged himself, just as though 
our own powers were sufficient for us without his grace. ‘This 
arrogance he cannot better repress, than by proving to us from 
experience, not only our great imbecility, but also our ex- 
treme frailty. Therefore he afflicts us with ignominy, or 
poverty, or loss of relatives, or disease, or other calamities; to 
the bearing of which being in ourselves unequal, we ere long 


(s) Matt. iti. 175 xvii. 5. (t) Heb. v. 8. (4), Rom. viit. 29. 
(w) Acts xiv. 22, (x) Phil. 11. 10. 


CHAP. vitt.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 631 
sink under them. ‘Thus being humbled, we learn to in- 
voke his strength, which alone causes us to stand erect un- 
der a load of afflictions. Moreover, the greatest saints, though 
sensible that they stand by the grace of God, not by their 
own strength, are nevertheless more secure than they ought to 
be of their fortitude and constancy, unless he leads them by 
the discipline of the cross into a deeper knowledge of them- 
selves. This presumption insinuated itself even into David: 
“In my prosperity I said, I shall never be moved; Lord, by 
thy favour thou hast made my mountain to stand strong. 
Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled.” (y) For he 
confesses that his senses were so stupefied and benumbed by 
prosperity, that disregarding the grace of God, on which he 
ought to have depended, he relied on himself, so as to promise 
himself a permanent standing. If this happened to so great a 
prophet, who of us should not be fearful and cautious? 
Though in prosperity, therefore, they have flattered them- 
selves with the notion of superior constancy and patience, yet 
when humbled by adversity, they learn that this was mere 
hypocrisy. Admonished by such evidences of their maladies, 
believers advance in humility, and, divested of corrupt confi- 
dence in the flesh, betake themselves to the grace of God; and 
when they have applied to it, they experience the presence of 
the Divine strength, in which they find abundant protection. 
Ill. This is what Paul teaches, that “tribulation worketh 
patience, and patience experience.” (z) For the promise of: 
God to believers, that he will assist them in tribulations, they 
experience to be true, when they patiently stand supported 
by his power, which they certainly could not do by their own 
strength. Patience, therefore, affords a proof to the saints, that 
God will really give the assistance he has promised in every 
time of need. This also confirms their hope ; for it would be 
too much ingratitude not to rely on the truth of God for the 
future, which they have hitherto experienced to be constant 
and certain. Wesee now what a series of benefits we derive 
from the cross. For, subverting the opinion which we have 
falsely preconceived of our own strength, and detecting our 
hypocrisy, with which we are enamoured, it expels pernicious 
and carnal confidence ; when we are thus humbled, it teaches 
us to rely upon God alone, which keeps us from sinking under 
afflictions. And victory is followed by hope; inasmuch as the 
Lord, by the performance of his promises, establishes his 
truth for the future. Though these were the only reasons that 
eould be given, they are sufficient to show the necessity of the 
discipline of the cross. For it is no small advantage to be 


(y) Psalm xxx. 6, 7. (z) Rom. v. 3, 4. 


632 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooxK, 111. 


divested of a blind self-love, that we may be fully conscious 
of our imbecility ; to be affected with a sense of our imbecility, 
that we may learn to be diffident of ourselves; to be diffident 
of ourselves, that we may transfer our confidence to God; to 
depend with unreserved confidence on God, that, relying on 
his assistance, we may persevere unconquered to the end; to 
stand in his grace, that we may know his veracity in his pro- 
mises; to experience the certainty of his promises, that our 
hope may thereby be strengthened. 

IV. The Lord has also another end in afflicting his children ; 
to try their patience, and teach them obedience. Not, indeed, 
that they can perform any other obedience to him than that 
which he has given them; but he is pleased in this manner, 
by clear evidences, to exhibit and testify the graces which he 
has conferred on his saints, that they may not be concealed in 
inactivity within them. Therefore, in giving an open manifes- 
tation of the strength and constancy in suffering, with which 
he has furnished his servants, he is said to try their patience. 
Hence these expressions, that ‘‘God did tempt Abraham,’’ 
and prove his piety, from the circumstance of his not refusing 
to sacrifice his own and only son. (a) Wherefore Peter states, 
that our faith is tried by tribulations, just as gold is tried by 
fire in a furnace. (6) Now, who can say that it is not necessary 
for this most excellent gift of patience, which a believer has 
received from his God, to be brought forward into use, that it 
may be ascertained and manifested? For otherwise men will 
never esteem it as it deserves. But if God himself acts justly, 
when, to prevent the virtues which he has conferred on be- 
_ lievers from being concealed in obscurity and remaining use- 
less and perishing, he furnishes an occasion for exciting them, — 
there is the best of reasons for the afflictions of the saints, with- 
out which they would have no patience. By-the eross they 
are also, I say, instructed to obedience; because they are thus 
taught to live, not according to their own inelination, but ac- 
cording to the will of God. If every thing succeeded with 
them according to their wishes, they would not know what it 
is to. follow God. But Seneca mentions that this was an 
ancient proverb, when they would exhort any one to bear ad- 
versity with patience, ‘‘ Follow God.” This imphed that man 
submitted to the yoke of God, only when he resigned himself 
to his corrections. Now, if it is most reasonable that we should 
prove ourselves in all things obedient to our heavenly Father, 
we certainly ought not to deny him the use of every method 
to accustom us to practise this obedience. 

VY. Yet we do not perceive how necessary this obedience is 


(a) Gen. xxii. 1, 12. (b) 1 Peter i. 7. 


CHAP. vit. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 633 


to us, unless we at the same time reflect on the great wanton- 
ness of our flesh to shake off the Divine yoke, as soon as we 
have been treated with a little tenderness and indulgetice. 
The case is exactly the same as with refractory horses, which, 
after having been pampered for some days in idleness, grow 
fierce and untamable, and regard not the rider, to whose ma- 
nagement they previously submitted. And we are perpetual ex- 
amples of what God complains of in the people of Israel; when 
we are ‘‘ waxen fat,” and are ‘covered with fatness,’ (c) we 
kick against him who has cherished and supported us. The 
beneficence of God ought to have allured us to the consider- 
ation and love of his goodness; but since such is our ingrati- 
tude, that we are rather constantly corrupted by his indulgence, 
it is highly necessary for us to be restrained by some discipline 
from breaking out into such petulance. Therefore, that we 
may not be made haughty by an excessive abundance of 
wealth, that we may not become proud on being distinguished 
with honours, that we may not be rendered insolent by being 
inflated with other advantages, mental, corporeal, or external, 
the Lord himself, as he foresees will be expedient, by the 
remedy of the cross, opposes, restrains, and subdues the 
haughtiness of our flesh ; and that by various methods, adapt- 
ed to promote the benefit of each individual. For we are not 
all equally afflicted with the same diseases, or all in need of an 
equally severe method of cure. Hence we see different per- 
sons exercised with different kinds of crosses. But whilst the 
heavenly Physician, consulting the health of all his patients, 
practises a milder ‘treatment towards some, and cures others 
with rougher remedies, yet he leaves no one completely ex- 
empted, because he knows we are all diseased, without the ex- 
ception of a single individual. 

VI. Moreover it is necessary that our most merciful Father 
should not only prevent our infirmity for the future, but also 
frequently correct our past offences, to preserve us in a course 
of legitimate obedience to himself. Wherefore in every afflic- 
tion we ought immediately to recollect the course of our past 
life. In reviewing it, we shall certainly find that we have 
committed what was deserving of such chastisement. Never- 
theless the exhortation to patience must not be principally 
founded on a consciousness of sin. For the Scripture furnishes 
a far better consideration, when it informs us, that in adversity 
‘‘we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be con- 
demned with the world.” (d) Therefore, even in the bitterness 
of tribulations, it becomes us to acknowledge the clemency and 
benignity of our Father towards us; since even then he ceases 


(c) Deut xxxii. 15. (d) 1 Cor. xi. 32. 
VOL. 1. 80 


634 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox. 111. 


hot to promote our salvation. For he afflicts, not to ruin or 
destroy us, but rather to deliver us from the condemnation of 
the world. ‘This idea will lead us to what the Scripture in- 
culcates in another place: ‘‘ My son, despise not the chastening 
of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction ; for whom the 
Lord loveth he correcteth, even as a father the son in whom he 
delighteth.” (e) When we recognize the rod of a father, is it 
not our duty rather to show ourselves obedient and® docile 
children, than contumaciously to imitate desperate men, who 
have been hardened in their transgressions? God loses us, 
unless he recalls us after our defections from him ; so that the 
apostle correctly remarks, “If ye be without chastisement, then 
are ye bastards, and not sons.” (f) Weare extremely perverse, 
therefore, if we cannot bear with him, while he declares his 
benevolence towards us, and his great concern for our salva- 
tion. ‘The Scripture points out this difference between be- 
lievers and unbelievers; the latter, as the slaves of an inveterate 
and incurable iniquity, are only rendered more wicked and ob- 
stinate by correction ; the former, like ingenuous children, are 
led to a salutary repentance. You have to choose now in 
which number you would prefer to stand. But having treated 
of this subject elsewhere, I shall conclude, contenting myself 
with having thus briefly touched on it here. 

VII. But it is a source of peculiar consolation when we 
suffer persecution ‘for righteousness’ sake.” (g¢) For we 
ought then to reflect how ‘greatly we are honoured by God, 
when he thus distinguishes us with the peculiar characteristic 
of his service. I call it persecution for righteousness’ sake, 
not only when we suffer in defence of the gospel, but also 
when we are molested in the vindication of any just cause. 
Whether, therefore, in asserting the truth of God, in opposition 
to the falsehoods of Satan, or in undertaking the protection of 
good and innocent men against the injuries of the wicked, it 
be necessary for us to incur the resentment and hatred of the 
world, by which our lives, our fortunes, or our reputation, may 
be endangered, — let it not be grievous or irksome to us thus far 
to employ ourselves in the service of God; nor let us imagine 
ourselves to be miserable in those respects in which he has 
with his own mouth pronounced us blessed. It is true, that 
poverty, considered in itself, is misery; and the same may be 
said of exile, contempt, imprisonment, ignominy ; finally, death 
is of all calamities the last and worst. But with the favour 
of our God, they are all conducive to our happiness. Let us 
therefore be content with the testimony of Christ, rather than 
with the false opinion of the flesh. 'Thus we shall rejoice, 


(e) Prov. iii. 11, 12. (f) Heb. xii. 8. (g) Matt. v. 10 


CHAP. vill. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 635 


like the apostles, whenever he shall ‘‘ count us worthy to suffer 
shame for his name.” (h) For if, being innocent and conscious. 
of our own integrity, we are stripped of our property by the 

villany of the wicked, we are reduced to poverty indeed among 

men, but we thereby obtain an increase of true riches with 

God in heaven ; if we are banished from our country, we are 

more intimately received into the family of God; if we meet 

with vexation and contempt, we are so much the more firmly 
rooted in Christ ; if we are stigmatized with reproach and ig- 
hominy, we are ‘so much the more exalted in the kingdom of 

God ; if we are massacred, it opens an entrance for us into a 
life of blessedness. We ought to be ashamed of setting a 
lower estimation on thingson which the Lord has attached 
such a great value, than on the shadowy and evanescent plea- 
sures of the present life. 

VIII. Since the Scripture, therefore, by these and similar in- 
structions, affords abundant consolation under all the ignominy 
and calamity which we sustain in the defence of righteousness, 
we are chargeable with extreme ingratitude if we do not re- 
ceive them from the hand of the Lord with cheerful resigna- 
tion ; especially since this 1s the species of affliction, or the 
cross, most peculiar to believers, by which Christ will be 
glorified in us, according to the declaration of Peter. (7) And 
contumelious treatment being to ingenuous minds more intole- 
rable than a hundred deaths, Paul expressly apprizes us, that 
not only persecutions, but reproaches await us, ‘‘ because we 
trust in the living God.” (4) As in another place he directs us 
by his example to go through ‘evil report and good report.” (2) 
‘Nor are we required to exercise stich a cheerfulness as to banish 
all sense of bitterness and sorrow ; the saints could discover no 
patience under the cross, unless they were tormented with sor- 
row and harassed with grief. If there were no hardship in 
poverty, no agony in diseases, no distress in ignominy, no horror 
in death, — what fortitude or moderation would be displayed in 
regarding them with absolute indifference? But since each of 
these, by its own essential bitterness, naturally preys on all our 
hearts, herein the fortitude of a believer is manifested, if, when 
he experiences such bitterness, how grievously soever he may 
be distressed by it, yet by valiantly resisting, he at length over- 
comes it; his patience displays itself, if, when he is sharply 
provoked, he is nevertheless restrained by the fear of God from 
any eruptions of intemperance : his cheerfulness is conspicuous, 
if, when he is wounded by sadness and sorrow, he is satisfied 
with the spiritual consolation of God. 

IX. This conflict, which believers sustain against the na- 


(:) Acts v. 41. (i) 1 Peter iv. 14. (k) 1 Tim. iv. 10. (1) 2 Cor. vi. 8 


636 INSTITUTES OF THE - [Book un 


tural emotions of sorrow, while they cultivate patience and 
moderation, Paul has beautifully described in the following 
words: ‘‘ We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed ; we 
are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken ; 
cast down, but not destroyed.” (m) You see that patiently to 
bear the cross does not consist in an absolute stupefaction and 
privation of all sense of sorrow, according to the foolish de- 
scription given by the ancient Stoics of a magnanimous-man, as 
one who, divested of the feelings of human nature, is alike 
unaffected by adverse and prosperous events, by sorrowful and 
joyful ones. And what advantage have they derived from this 
sublime wisdom? ‘They have depicted an image of patience, 
such as never has been found, such as never can exist among 
men; but in their ardour for a patience too perfect and precise, 
they have banished its influence from human life. At present 
also among Christians there are modern Stoics, who esteem it 
sinful not only to groan and weep, but even to discover sadness , 
and solicitude. These paradoxes generally proceed from idle 
men, who, employing themselves more in speculation than in 
action, can produce nothing but such paradoxical notions. But 
we have nothing to do with that iron-hearted philosophy, 
which our Master and Lord has condemned not only in words, 
but even by his own example. For he mourned and wept both 
for his own calamities and for those of others. Nor did he 
teach his disciples a different conduct. ‘The world,” says he, 
‘shall rejoice, but ye shall weep and lament.” (m) And that 
no man might pervert it into a crime, he has formally pro- 
nounced a blessing on them that mourn; (o) and no wonder. 
For if all tears be reprobated, what judgment shall we form 
concerning the Lord himself, from whose body distilled tears 
of blood? (p) If every terror be stigmatized with the charge 
of unbelief, what character shall we attribute to that horror and 
consternation with which we read that he was so violently de- 
pressed? If all sorrow be displeasing, how can we be pleased 
with his confessing that his ‘‘soul”’ was “ sorrowful even unto 
death?” 

X. I have thought proper to mention these things, in order 
to preserve pious minds from despair ; that they may not hastily 
renounce the study of patience, because they cannot divest 
themselves of the natural affection of sorrow. This must 
necessarily be the case with those who degrade patience into 
insensibility, and a man of fortitude and constancy into a 
senseless block. For the Scripture applauds the saints for their 
patience, when they are afflicted with severe calamities, but not 
broken and overcome by them; when they are bitterly dis- 


m) 2 Cor. iv. 8,9 (n) John xvi. 20. (0) Matt. v. 4. (p) Luke xxii. 44 


CHAP. vitt.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 637 


tressed, but are filled at the same time with spiritual joy ; when 
they are oppressed with anxiety, but are revived and exhilarated 
with Divine consolation. At the same time there is that oppo- 
sition in their hearts, that the feelings of nature avoid and 
dread those things which they experience to be inimical to it ; 
but the affection of piety struggles even through these diffi- 
culties to obey the Divine will. This opposition the Lord ex- 
pressed, when he thus addressed Peter: ‘‘ When thou wast 
young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou would- 
est ; but when thou shalt be old, another shall gird thee, and carry 
thee whither thou wouldest not.’ (q) It is not probable that 
Peter, when he was called to glorify God by his death, was 
drawn to it with reluctance and resistance ; in this case his 
martyrdom would be entitled to little applause. But however 
he might submit with the greatest alacrity of heart to the Di- 
vine appointment, yet, not having divested himself of human 
nature, he was distracted by two contrary inclinations. For 
when he contemplated the bloody death he was about to un- 
dergo, stricken with a dread of it, he would gladly have escaped. 
On the contrary, when he considered that he was called to it 
by the Divine will, suppressing all fear, he unreluctantly and 
even cheerfully submitted to it. It must be our study, there- 
fore, if we would be the disciples of Christ, that our minds 
may be imbued with so great a reyerence for God, and such an 
unreserved obedience to him, as may overcome all contrary af- 
fections, and make them submit to his appointments. ‘Thus, 
whatever kind of affliction we endure, even in the greatest dis- 
tresses of the mind, we shall constantly retain our patience. 
For adversity itself will have its stings, with which we shall 
be wounded. ‘Thus, when afflicted with disease, we shall 
groan and be disquieted, and pray for the restoration of health ; 
thus, when oppressed with poverty, we shall feel the stings of 
solicitude and sorrow; thus we shall be affected with the grief 
of ignominy, contempt, and injury; thus we shall shed the 
tears due to nature at the funerals of our friends; but we shall 
always recur to this conclusion, This affliction is appointed by 
the Lord, therefore let us submit to his will. Even in the 
agonies of grief, amid groans and tears, there is a necessity for 
the intervention of this reflection, in order to incline the heart 
cheerfully to bear those things by which it is so affected. 

XI. But as we have deduced the principal reason for bear- 
ing the cross from a consideration of the Divine will, we must 
briefly point out the difference between philosophical and 
Christian patience. For very few of the philosophers have 
risen to such an eminence of reason, as to perceive that we are 


(q) John xxi. 18. 


* 


638 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK 111. 


exercised with afflictions by the Divine hand, and to conclude 
that God ought to be obeyed in these occurrences; and even 
those who have gone to this length, adduce no other reason, 
than because it is necessary. What is this but saying, that we 
must submit to God, because it were in vain to contend against 
him? For if we obey God only from necessity, if-it were pos- 
sible to escape from him, our obedience would cease. But the 
Scripture enjoins us to consider the Divine will in a very dif- 
ferent point of view ; first, as consistent with justice and equity ; 
secondly, as directed to the accomplishment of our salvation. 
Christian exhortations to patience, then, are such as these: 
Whether we are afflicted with poverty, or exile, or imprison- 
_ ment, or reproach, or disease, or loss of relatives, or any other 
"similar calamity, we must reflect that none of these things 
happen without the appointment and providence of God ; and, 

moreover, that he does nothing but with the most systematic 
justice. Do not our innunierable and daily transgressions 
deserve more severe and grievous chastisements than those 
which his clemency inflicts on us? Is it not highly reasonable 
that our flesh should be subdued, and as it were accustomed to 
the yoke, lest it should break out, according to its propensities, 
into lawless excesses? Are not the righteousness and truth of 

God worthy of our labours on their account? But if the equity 
of God evidently appears in our afflictions, we cannot without 
iniquity either murmur or resist. We no longer hear that 
frigid maxim of the philosophers, We must submit to necessity ;- 
but a lesson lively and full of efficacy, We must obey, because 
it is unlawful to resist; we must patiently suffer, because 
impatience is a rebellious opposition to the justice of God. 
Because nothing is really amiable to us but what we know 
to be conducive to our benefit and salvation, our most mer- 
ciful Father affords us consolation also in this respect, by 
declaring, that even in afflicting us with the cross, he pro- 
motes our salvation. But if it be evident that tribulations 
are salutary for us, why should we not endure them with 
grateful and placid hearts? In patiently bearing them, there- 
fore, we do not submit to necessity, but acquiesce in our 
own benefit. The effect of these considerations is, that in 
proportion as our minds are oppressed under the cross with 
the natural sense of affliction, so greatly are they dilated 
with spiritual joy. This is attended also by thanksgiving, 
which cannot be without joy. But if praise and thanksgiving 
to the Lord can only proceed from a cheerful and joyful heart, 
—and there is nothing which ought to repress these emotions 
within us, — this shows how necessary it is that the bitterness 
of the cross should be tempered with spiritual joy. 


cHap. 1x.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 63) 


CHAPTER IX. 
MEDITATION ON THE FUTURE LIFE. 


Wir whatever kind of tribulation we may be afflicted, we 
should always keep this end in view —to habituate ourselves to 
a contempt of the present life, that we may thereby be excited to 
meditation on that which is to come. For the Lord, well 
knowing our strong natural inclination to a brutish love of the 
world, adopts a most excellent method to reclaim us and rouse 
us from our insensibility, that we may not be too tenaciously 
attached to that foolish affection. ‘There is not one of us who 
is not desirous of appearing, through the whole course of his 
life, to aspire and strive after celestial immortality. For we 
are ashamed of excelling in no respect the brutal herds, whose 
condition would not be at all inferior to ours, unless there re- 
mained to us a hope of eternity after death. But if you 
examine the designs, pursuits, and actions of every individual, 
you will find nothing in them but what is terrestrial. ‘Hence 
that stupidity, that the mental eyes, dazzled with the vain 
splendour of riches, power, and honours, cannot see to any 
considerable distance. ‘The heart also, occupied and oppressed 
With avarice, ambition, and other inordinate desires, cannot rise 
to any eminence. In a word, the whole soul, fascinated by 
carnal allurements, seeks its felicity on earth.» To oppose this 
evil, the Lord, by continual lessons of miseries, teaches his 
children the vanity of the present life. That they may not 
promise themselves profound and secure peace in it, therefore 
he permits them to be frequently disquieted and infested with 
wars or tumults, with robberies or other injuries. That they 
may not aspire with too much avidity after transient and un- 
certain riches, or depend on those which they possess, — some- 
times by exile, sometimes by the sterility of the land, sometimes 
by a conflagration, sometimes by other means, he reduces them 
to indigence, or at least confines them within the limits of me- 
diocrity. That they may not be too complacently delighted 
with conjugal blessings, he either causes them to be distressed 
with the wickedness of their wives, or humbles them witha 
wicked offspring, or afflicts them with want or loss of children. 
But if in all these things he is more indulgent to them, yet that 
they may not be inflated with vain glory, or improper confi- 
dence, he shows them by diseases and dangers the unstable 
and transitory nature of all mortal blessings. We therefore 
truly derive advantage from the discipline of the cross, only 


. 


640 | INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 11, 


when we learn that this life, considered in itself, is unquiet, 
turbulent, miserable in numberless instances, and in no respect 
altogether happy ; and that all its reputed blessings are uncer- 
tain, transient, vain, and adulterated with a mixture of many 
evils; and in consequence of this at once conclude, that 
nothing can be sought or expected on earth but conflict, and 
that when we think of a crown we must raise our eyes to- 
wards heaven. For it must be admitted, that the mind is 
never seriously excited to desire and meditate on the future 
life, without having previously imbibed a contempt of the 
present. 

II. There is no medium between these two extremes; either 
the earth must become vile in our estimation, or it must retain 
our immoderate love. Wherefore, if we have any concern 
about eternity, we must use our most diligent efforts to ex- 
tricate ourselves from these fetters. Now, since the present life 
has numerous blandishments to attract us, and much pleasure, 
beauty, and sweetness to delight us, —it 1s very necessary to 
our highest interests, that we should be frequently called off, 
that we may not be fascinated with such allurements. For 
what would be the consequence, if we were perpetually happy 
in the enjoyment of the blessings of this life ; since we cannot, 
even by the incessant stimulus of calamity after calamity, be 
sufficiently aroused to a consideration of its misery? ‘That 
human life is like a vapour or a shadow, is not only known to 
the learned, but even the vulgar have no proverb more com- 
mon ; and perceiving it to be a thing the knowledge of which 
would be eminently useful, they have represented it in many 
remarkable sentences. But there is scarcely any thing which 
we more carelessly consider, or sooner forget; for we under- 
take every thing as though we were erecting for ourselves an 
immortality on earth. If a funeral pass by, or we walk among 
the tombs, because the image of death is then presented to our 
eyes, we philosophize, I confess, in an admirable manner con- 
cerning the vanity of the present life; although even that is 
not always the case, for frequently we are quite unaffected 
with all these things. But when this effect is produced, our 
philosophy is momentary, vanishing as soon as we withdraw, 
and leaving not even the smallest vestige behind it; in short, 
it passes away, and is forgotten just like the plaudits of a the- 
atre at any entertaining exhibition. And forgetting not only 
death, but mortality itself, as though no rumour concerning it 
had ever reached us, we relapse into a supine security of im- 
mortality on earth. If any one, in the mean time, reminds us 
of the unwelcome proverb, that man is a creature of a day, we 
acknowledge the truth of it indeed, but with such inattention 
that the idea of perpetually living here still remains fixed in 


* 


CHAP. IXx.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 641 


our minds. Who, then, can deny, that it is highly useful to us 
all, 1 do not say to be admonished by words, but by every pos- 
sible evidence to be convinced, of the miserable condition of 
the present life ; since even after we are convinced of it, we 
scarcely cease to be besotted with a perverse and foolish ad- 
miration of it, as though it contained the greatest attainable 
blessings? But if it be necessary for God to instruct us, it is, 
on the other hand, our duty to listen to him when he calls, and 
tebukes our sluggishness ; in order that, despising the world, 
we may apply ourselves with our whole heart to meditate on 
the life which is to come. 

IIt. But believers should accustom themselves to such a 
contempt of the present life, as may not generate either hatred 
of life, or ingratitude towards God. For this life, though it is 
replete with innumerable miseries, is yet deservedly reckoned 
among the Divine blessings which must not be despised. 
Wherefore, if we discover nothing of the Divine beneficence in 
it, we are already guilty of no small ingratitude towards God 
himself. But to believers especially it should be a testimony 
of the Divine benevolence, since the whole of it is destined to 
the advancement of their salvation. For before he openly dis- 
covers to us the inheritance of eternal glory, he intends to re- 
veal himself as our Father in inferior instances; and those are 
the benefits which he daily confers on us. Since this life, 
then, is subservient to a knowledge of the Divine goodness, 
shall we fastidiously scorn it, as though it contained no particle 
of goodness in it? We must therefore have this sense and 
affection, to class it among the bounties of the Divine benignity 
which are not to be rejected. For if Scripture testimonies 
were wanting, which are very numerous and clear, even nature 
itself exhorts us to give thanks to the Lord for having intro- 
duced us to the Jight of life, for granting us the use of it, and 
giving us all the helps necessary to its preservation. And it is 
a far superior reason for gratitude, if we consider that here we - 
are in some measure prepared for the glory of the heavenly 
kingdom. For the Lord has ordained, that they who are to 
be hereafter crowned in heaven, must first engage in conflicts 
on earth, that they may not triumph without having surmount- 
ed the difficulties of warfare and obtained the victory. Another 
reason is, that here we begin in various blessings to taste the 
sweetness of the Divine benignity, that our hope and desire 
may be excited after the full revelation of it. When we have 
come to this conclusion, that our life in this world is a gift of 
the Divine clemency, which, as we owe to him, we ought 
to remember with gratitude, it will then be time for us to 
descend to a-consideration of its most miserable condition, that 

VOL. I. 81 


642, INSTITUTES OF THE [Book iit. 


we may be delivered from excessive love of it, to which, as has 
been observed, we’are naturally inclined. 

IV. Now, whatever is abstracted from the corrupt love of 
this life should be added to the desire of a better. I grant, in- 
‘deed, the correctness of their opinion, who considered it as the 
greatest blessing not to be born, and as the next, to die imme- 
diately. For, being heathens, destitute of the knowledge of 
God and of true religion, what could they see in it but unhap- 
piness and misery? Nor was there any thing irrational in the 
conduct of those who mourned and wept at the births of their 
relations, and solemnly rejoiced at their funerals. But they 
practised this without any advantage ; for, destitute of the true 
doctrine of faith, they did not perceive how that can conduce 
to the benefit of the pious, which in itself is neither blessed 
nor desirable; and so their views terminated in despair. It 
should be the object of believers, therefore, in judging of 
this mortal life, that understanding it to be of itself nothing but 


misery, they may apply themselves wholly, with increasing — 


cheerfulness and readiness, to meditate on the future and eter- 
nal life. When we come to this comparison, then indeed the 
former may be not only securely neglected, but, in competition 
with the latter, altogether despised and abhorred. For if 
heaven is our country, what is the earth but a place of exile? 
If the departure out of the world is an entrance into life, what 
is the world but a sepulchre? What is a continuance in it 
but an absorption in death? If deliverance from the body is 
an introduction into complete liberty, what is the body but a 
prison? If to enjoy the presence of God is the summit of 
felicity, is it not misery to be destitute of it? But till we es- 
cape out of the world, “we are absent from the Lord.” (r) 
Therefore, if the terrestrial life be compared with the celestial, 
it should undoubtedly be despised and accounted of ‘no value. 
It certainly is never to be hated, except in as much as it keeps 
us obnoxious to sin; although even that hatred is not properly 
to be applied to life itself. It becomes us, however, to be so 
affected with weariness or hatred of it, as to desire its end, but 
to be also prepared to remain in it during the Divine pleasure ; 
that is to say, our weariness should be remote from all mur- 
muring and impatience. or it is a post at which the Lord 
has ‘placed us, to be retained by us till he call us away. Paul, 
indeed, bewails his lot, that he is kept in bondage by the fetters 
of the body longer than he would wish, and sighs with an 
ardent desire of deliverance ;(s) nevertheless, obedient to the 
Divine authority, he professes himself prepared for both; for 
he acknowledges himself under an obligation to God to glorify 


(r) 2 Cor. v. 6. (s) Rom. vii. 24. 


CHAP. IXx.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 643 


his name either by life or by death ; (¢) but that it belongs to 
the Lord to determine what will conduce most to his glory. 
Therefore, if it becomes us “ to live and to die to the Lord,” (w) 
let us leave the limits of our life and death to his decision; yet 
in such a manner, as ardently to desire and continually to me- 
ditate on the latter, but*to despise the former in comparison with 
future immortality, and on account of the servitude of sin, to 
wish to forsake it whenever it shall please the Lord. 

VY. But it is monstrous, that instead of this desire of death, 
multitudes who boast themselves to be Christians, are filled 
with such a dread of it, that they tremble whenever it is men- 
tioned, as if it were the greatest calamity that could befall 
them. It is no wonder, indeed, if our natural feelings should 
be alarmed at hearing of our dissolution. But it is intolerable 
that there should not be in a Christian breast sufficient light of 
piety to overcome and suppress all that fear with superior con- 
solation. For if we consider, that this unstable, depraved, 
corruptible, frail, withering, and rotten tabernacle of our body 
is dissolved, in order that it may hereafter be restored to a 
durable, perfect, incorruptible, and heavenly glory, — will not 
faith constrain us ardently to desire what nature dreads? If 
we consider, that by death we are recalled from exile to 
inhabit our own country, and that a heavenly one, shall we 
derive thence no consolation? But it will be said, There is 
nothing that does not desire to be permanent. [ admit it; 
and: contend that we ought therefore to direct our views to a 
future immortality, where we may obtain a fixed condition, 
which is nowhere to be found on earth. For Paul excellently 
teaches believers to go with alacrity to death, “not for that 
they would be unclothed, but clothed upon.” (#7) Shall brute 
animals, and even inanimate creatures, down to stocks and 
stones, conscious of their present vanity, be looking forward to 
the resurrection at the last day, that they may be delivered 
from vanity, together with the children of God; and shall we, 
endued with the light of understanding, and, what is superior 
to the natural understanding, illuminated with the Spirit of 
God, when the question respects our own existence, not raise 
our minds above the corruption of this world? But it is net 
necessary to my present design, nor suitable in this place, to 
argue against such extreme perverseness. And I have already 
declared in the beginning, that I would not undertake a diffuse 
discussion of commonplace topics. I would persuade such 
timid minds to read Cyprian’s treatise on Mortality, did ‘they 
not deserve rather to be referred to the philosophers, that 
they may begin to blush, when they see the contempt of death 


(t) Phil. i. 20. (u) Rom. xiv. 7, 8. (x) 2 Corey. 4. 


644, INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 1n 


discovered by them. But this we may positive y conclude, 
that no man has made any good proficiency in the school of 
Christ, but he who joyfully expects both the day of death and 
that of the final resurrection. For Paul describes all believers 
by this character, (y) and the Scripture often recalls our atten- 
tion to it, when it intends to furnish us with a reason for true 
joy. ‘Look up,’ saith the Lord, “and hft up your heads; 
for your redemption draweth nigh.” (z) Is it reasonable, that 
what he designed so powerfully to excite us to exultation and 
alacrity, should produce nothing but sorrow and consternation ? 
If this be the case, why do we still glory in him as our Mas- 
ter? Let us therefore acquire a sounder judgment; and not- 
withstanding the opposition of the blind and stupid cupidity of 
our flesh, let us not hesitate ardently to desire the advent of 
the Lord, as of all events the most auspicious. For he shall 
come to us as a Redeemer, to deliver us from this bottomless 
eulf of all evils and miseries, and introduce us into that blessed 
inheritance of his life and glory. 

VI. It is certainly true, that the whole family of believers, 
as long as they dwell on the earth, must be “accounted as 
sheep for the slaughter,’”’ (a) that they may be conformed to 
Christ their Head. Their state, therefore, would be extreme- 
ly deplorable, if they did not elevate their thoughts towards 
heaven, rise above all sublunary things, and look beyond pre- 
sent appearances. (6) On the contrary, when they have once 
raised their heads above this world, although they see the 
impious flourishing in riches and honours, and enjoying the 
most profound tranquillity ; though they see them boasting of 
their splendour and luxury, and behold them abounding in 
every delight; though they may also be harassed by their 
wickedness, insulted by their pride, defrauded by their avarice, 
and may receive from them any other lawless provocations, — 
yet they will find no difficulty in supporting themselves even 
under such calamities as these. For they will keep in view 
that day when the Lord will receive his faithful servants into 
his peaceful kingdom; will wipe every tear from their eyes, (c} 
invest them with robes of joy, adorn them with crowns of 
glory, entertain them with his ineffable delights, exalt them to 
fellowship with his majesty, and, in a word, honour them with 
a participation of his happiness. But the impious, who have 
been great in this world, he will precipitate down to the lowest 
ignominy; he will change their delights into torments, and 
their laughter and mirth into weeping and gnashing of teeth, 
he will disturb their tranquillity with dreadful agonies of con- 


(y) Titus ii. 13. (z) Luke xxi. 28. 
(a) Rom. yiil. 36. (6) 1 Cor. xv. 19. (c) Isaiah xxv. 8. Rev. vii. 17. 


CHAP. x.] ‘CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 645 | 


science, and will punish their delicacy with inextinguishable 
fire, and even put them in subjection to the pious, whose 
patience they have abused. For, according to Paul, “it isa 
nghteous thing with God to-recompense tribulation to them 
that trouble” the saints, ‘‘and to” them “who are troubled, 
rest, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven.” (d) 
This is our only consolation ; and deprived of this, we must 
of necessity either sink into. despondency of mind, or solace 
ourselves to our own destruction with the vain pleasures of 
the world. For even the Psalmist confesses that he stag- 
gered, (e) when he was too much engaged in contemplating 
the present prosperity of the impious; and that he could 
no otherwise establish himself, till he entered the sanctuary 
of God, and directed his views to the last end of the godly 
and of the wicked. ‘To conclude in one word, the cross 
of Christ triumphs, in the hearts of believers, over the devil and 
the flesh, over sin and impious men, only when their eyes are 
directed to the power of the resurrection. 


CHAPTER X. 


e 


THE RIGHT USE OF THE PRESENT LIFE AND ITS SUPPORTS. 


By such principles, the Scripture also fully instructs us in 
the right use of terrestrial blessings —a thing that ought not to 
be neglected in a plan for the regulation of life. Forif we 
must live, we must also use the necessary supports of life; nor 
can we avoid even those things which appear to subserve our 
pleasures rather than our necessities. It behooves us, therefore, 
to observe moderation, that we may use them with a pure. 
conscience, whether for necessity or for pleasure. *'This the 
Lord prescribes in his word, when he teaches us, that to his 
servants the present life is hke a pilgrimage, in which they 
are travelling towards the celestial kingdom. If we are only 
to pass through the earth, we ought undoubtedly to make 
such a use of its blessings as will rather assist than retard us 
in our journey.™, It is not without reason, therefore, that Paul 
advises us to use this world as though we used it not, and to 
buy with the same disposition with which we sell.(f) But 
ag this is a difficult subject, and there is danger of falling into 
one of two opposite errors, let us endeavour to proceed on safe 
ground, that we may avoid both extremes. For there have 


(d) 2 Thess. i. 6, 7. (c) Psalm Ixxiii. 2, &e. (f) 1 Cor. vii. 30, 31. 


646 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book ms 


been some, in other respects good and holy men, who, seeing 
that intemperance and luxury, unless restrained with more than 
ordinary severity, would perpetually indulge the most extrava- 
gant excesses, and desiring to correct such a pernicious evil, 
have adopted the only method which occurred to them, by 
permitting men to use corporeal blessings no further than their 
necessity should absolutely require. This advice was well 
intended, but they were far too austere. For they committed 
the very dangerous error of imposing on the conscience stricter 
rules than those which are prescribed to it by the word of the 
Lord. By restriction within the demands of necessity, they 
meant an abstinence from every thing from which it is possible 
to abstain; so that, according to them, it would scarcely be 
lawful to eat or drink any thing but bread and water. Others 
have discovered still greater austerity, like Crates the Theban, 
who is said to have thrown his wealth into the sea, from an 
apprehension that, unless it were destroyed, he should himself 
be destroyed by it. On the contrary, many in the present day, 
who seek a pretext to excuse intemperance in the use of exter- 
nal things, and at the same time desire to indulge the licen- 
tiousness of the flesh, assume as granted, what I by no means 
concede to them, that this liberty is not to be restricted by any 
limitation; but that it ought to be left to the conscience of 
every individual to use as much as he thinks lawful for him- 
self. I grant, indeed, that it is neither right nor possible to 
bind the conscience with the fixed and precise rules of law in 
this case ; but since the Scripture delivers general rules for the 
lawful use of earthly things, our practice ought certainly to be 
regulated by them. 

II. It must be laid down as a principle, that the use of the 
gifts of God is not erroneous, when it is directed to the same 
end for which the Creator himself has created and appointed 
them for us; since he has created them for our benefit, not for 
our injury. Wherefore, no one will observe a more proper rule, 
than he who shall diligently regard this end. Now, if we con- 
sider for what end he has created the various kinds of aliment, 
we shall find that he intended to provide not only for our ne- 
cessity, but likewise for our pleasure and delight. So in eloth- 
ing, he has had in view not mere necessity, but propriety and 
decency. In herbs, trees, and fruits, beside their various uses, 
his design has been to gratify us by graceful forms and pleasant 
odours. For if this were not true, the Psalmist would not re- 
count among the Divine blessings, ‘‘ wine that maketh glad the 
heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine ;”(g) yor 
would the Scriptures universally declare, in commendation of 
his goodness, that he has given all these things to men. And 


(g) Psalm civ. 15. 


CHAP. x. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 647 


even the natural properties of things sufficiently indicate for 
what end, and to what extent, it is lawful to use them. But 
shall the Lord have endued flowers with such beauty, to pre- 
- sent itself to our eyes, with such sweetness of smell, to impress 
our sense of smelling; and shall it be unlawful for our eyes to 
be affected with the beautiful sight, or our olfactory nerves 
with the agreeable odour? What! has he not made such a 
distinction of colours as to render some more agreeable than 
others? Has he not given to gold and silver, to ivory and 
marble, a beauty which makes them more precious than other 
metals or stones? Ina word, has he not made many things 
worthy of our estimation, independently of any necessary use ? 

Ill. Let us discard, therefore, that inhuman _ philosophy 
which, allowing no use of the creatures but what is absolutely 
necessary, not only malignantly deprives us of the lawful en- 
joyment of the Divine beneficence, but which cannot be em- 
braced till it has despoiled man of all his senses, and reduced 
him to a senseless block. But, on the other hand, we must, 
with equal diligence, oppose the licentiousness of the flesh ; 
which, unless it be rigidly restrained, transgresses every bound. 
And, as I have observed, it has its advocates, who, under the 
pretext of liberty, allow it every thing. In the first place, it 
will be one check to it, if it be concluded, that all things are 
made for us, in order that we may know and acknowledge 
their Author, and celebrate his goodiess towards us by giving 
him thanks. What will become of thanksgiving, if you over- 
charge yourself with dainties or wine, so as to be stupefied or 
rendered unfit for the duties of piety and the business of your 
station? Where is any acknowledgment of God, if your body, 
in consequence of excessive abundance, being inflamed with the 
vilest passions, infects the mind with its impurity, so that you 
cannot discern what is right or virtuous? Where is gratitude 
towards God for clothing, if, on account of our sumptuous 
apparel, we admire ourselves and despise others? if with the 
elegance and beauty of it, we prepare ourselves for unchastity ? 
Where is our acknowledgment of God, if our minds be fixed 
on the splendour of our garments? For many so entirely de- 
vote all their senses to the pursuit of pleasure, that the mind 
is, as it were, buried in it; many are so delighted with marble, 
gold, and pictures, that they become like statues, are, as it 
were, metamorphosed into metal, and resemble painted images. 
The flavour of meats, or the sweetness of odours, so stupefies 
some, that they have no relish for any thing spiritual. ‘The same 
may be observed in other cases. Wherefore it is evident, that 
this principle lays some restraint on the license of abusing the 
Divine bounties, and confirms the rule given us by Paul, that 
we ‘make not prevision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts there- 


648 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 11% 


of ;’’(¢) which, if they are allowed too much latitude, will 
transgress all the bounds of temperance and moderation. 

IV. But there is no way more certain or concise, than what 
we derive from a contempt of the present life, and meditation 
on a heavenly immortality. For thence follow two rules. 
The first is, ‘that they that have wives be as though they had 
none; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and 
they that use this world, as not abusing it; ” (4) according to 
the direction of Paul: the second, that we should learn to bear 
penury with tranquillity and patience, as well as to enjoy 
abundance with moderation. He who commands us to use 
this world as though we used it not, prohibits not only all in- 
temperance in eating and drinking, and excessive delicacy, am- 
bition, pride, haughtiness, and fastidiousness in our furniture, 
our habitations, and our apparel, but every care and affection, 
which would either seduce or disturb us from thoughts of the 
heavenly life, and attention to the improvement of our souls. 
Now, it was anciently and truly observed by Cato, That there 
is a great concern about adorning the body, and a great care- 
lessness about virtue ; and it is an old proverb, That they who 
are much engaged in the care of the body, are generally negli- 
gent of the soul. Therefore, though the liberty of believers 
in external things cannot be reduced to certain rules, yet it is 
evidently subject to this law, That they should indulge them- 
selves as little as possible; that, on the contrary, they should 
perpetually and resolutely exert themselves to retrench all su- 
perfluities and to restrain luxury; and that they should dil- 
gently beware lest they pervert into impediments things which 
were given for their assistance. 

VY. The other rule will be, That persons whose property is 
small should learn to be patient under their privations, that 
they may not be tormented with an immoderate desire of 
riches. ‘They who observe this moderation, have attained no 
small proficiency in the school of the Lord, as he who has 
made no proficiency in this point can scarcely give any proof 
of his being a disciple of Christ. For besides that an mordi- 
nate desire of earthly things is accompanied by most other 
vices, he who is impatient under penury, m abundance gene- 
rally betrays the opposite passion. By this I mean, that he who 
is ashamed of a mean garment, will be proud of a splendid one ; 
he who, not content with a slender meal, is disquieted with the 
desire of a more sumptuous one, would also intemperately 
abuse those dainties, should they fall to his lot ; he who bears 
a privae and mean condition with discontent and disquie- 
tude, would not abstain from pride and arrogance, should he 


(i) Rom. xiii. 14. (k) 1 Cor. vii. 29, 30, 31. 


wv HAP. i] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 649 


rise to eminence and honours. Let all, therefore, who are sin- 
cere in the practice of piety, earnestly. endeavour to learn, after 
the apostolic example, ‘‘both to be full and to be hungry, both 
' to abound and to suffer need.” (1) The Scripture has also a 
third rule, by which it regulates the use of earthly things; of 
which something was said, when we treated of the precepts of 
charity. lor it states, that while all these things are given to 
us by the Divine goodness, and appointed for our benefit, they 
are, as it were, deposits intrusted to our care, of which we must 
one day give an account. We ought, therefore, to manage 
them in such a manner that this alarm may be incessantly 
sounding in our ears, ‘‘ Give an account of thy stewardship.” (m) 
Let it also be remembered by whom this account is demanded ; 
that it is by him who has so highly recommended abstinence, 
sobriety, frugality, and modesty ; who abhors profusion, pride, 
ostentation, and vanity ; who approves of no other management 
of his blessings, than such as is connected with charity ; who 
has with his own mouth already condemned all those pleasures 
which seduce the heart from chastity and purity, or tend to 
impair the understanding. 

VI. Lastly, it is to be remarked, that the Lord commands 
every one of us, in all the actions of life, to regard his vocation. 
For he knows with what great inquietude the human mind is 
inflamed, with what desultory levity it is hurried hither and 
thither, and how insatiable 1s its ambition to grasp different 
things at once. Therefore, to prevent universal confusion be- 
ing produced by our folly and temerity, he has appointed to all 
their particular duties in different spheres of life. And that no 
one might rashly transgress the limits prescribed, he has styled 
such spheres of life vocations, or callings. Every individual’s 
line of life, therefore, is, as it were, a post assigned him by 
the J.ord, that he may not wander about in uncertainty all his 
days. And so necessary is this distinction, that in his sight all 
our actions are estimated according to it, and often very differ- 
ently from the sentence of human reason and_ philosophy. 
There is no exploit esteemed more honourable, even among 
philosophers, than to deliver our country from tyranny ; but the 
voice of the celestial Judge openly condemns the private man 
who lays violent hands ona tyrant. It is not my design, how- 
ever, to stay to enumerate examples. It is sufficient if we 
know that the principle and foundation of right conduct in 
every case is the vocation of the Lord, and that he who disre- 
gards it will never keep the right way in the duties of his sta- 
tion. He may sometimes, perhaps, achieve something appa- 
reijtly laudable ; but however it may appear in the eyes of men, 


(l) Phil. iv. 12. (m) ‘Luke xvi. 2. 
VOL. I. 82 


650 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book wm 


it will be rejected at the throne of God; besides which, there 
will be no consistency between the various parts of his life. 
Our life, therefore, will then be best regulated, when it is di- 
rected to this mark; since no one will be impelled by his own 
temerity to attempt more than is compatible with his calling, 
because he will know that it is unlawful to transgress the 
bounds assigned him. He that is in obscurity will lead a pri- 
vate life without discontent, so as not to desert the station in 
which God has placed him. It will also be no small alleviation 
of his cares, labours,.troubles, and other burdens, when a man 
knows that in all these things he has God for his guide. The 
magistrate will execute his office with greater pleasure, the 
father of a family will confine himself to his duty with more 
satisfaction, and all, in their respective spheres of life, will bear 
and surmount the inconveniences, cares, disappointments, and 
anxieties which befall them, when they shall be persuaded that 
every individual has his burden laid upon him by God. Hence 
also will arise peculiar consolation, since there will be no em- 
ployment so mean and sordid (provided we follow our vocation) 
as not to appear truly respectable, and be deemed highly im- 
portant in the sight of God. 


CHAPTER XI. 


JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH. THE NAME AND THING DEFINED. 


I tuinx I have already explained, with sufficient care, how 
that men, being subject to the curse of the law, have no means 
left of attaining salvation but through faith alone; and also 
what faith itself is, what Divine blessings it confers on man, 
and what effects it produces in him. ‘The substance of what I 
have advanced is, that Christ, being given to us by the good- 
ness of God, is apprehended and possessed by us by faith, by a 
participation of whom we receive especially two benefits. -In 
the first place, being by his innocence reconciled to God, we 
have in heaven a propitious father instead of a judge; in the 
next place, being sanctified by his Spirit, we devote ourselves 
to innocence and purity of life. Of regeneration, which is the 
second benefit, I have said what I thought was sufficient. 
The method of justification has been but shghtly touched, be- 
cause it was necessary, first to understand that the faith, by 
which alone we attain gratuitous justification through the Di- 
vine mercy, is not unattended with good works, and what is 


CHAP. xt. | | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 651 


the nature of the good works of: the saints, in which part of 
this question consists. The subject of justification, therefore, 
must now be fully discussed, and discussed with the recollection 
that it is the principal hinge by which religion is supported, in 
order that we may apply to it with the greater attention and 
care. For unless we first of all apprehend in what situation 
we stand with respect to God, and what his judgment is con- 
cerning us, we have no foundation either for a certainty of sal- 
vation, or for the exercise of piety towards God. But the ne- 
cessity of knowing this subject will be more evident from the 
knowledge itself. 

I. But that we may not stumble at the threshold, (which 
would be the case were we to enter on a disputation concerning 
a subject not understood by us,) let us first explain the meaning 
of these expressions 7'o be justified in the sight of God, To 
be justified by faith or by works. He is said to be justified in 
the sight of God who in the Divine judgment is reputed right- 
eous, and accepted on account of his righteousness ; for .as 
iniquity is abominable to God, so no sinner can find favour in 
his sight, as a sinner, or so long as he is considered as such. 
Wherever sin is, therefore, it is accompanied with the wrath 
and vengeance of God. He is justified who is considered not 
as a sinner, but as a righteous person, and on that account 
stands in safety before the tribunal of God, where all sinners 
are confounded and ruined. © As, if an innocent man be brought 
under an accusation before the tribunal of a just judge, when 
judgment is passed according to his innocence, he is said to be 
justified or acquitted before the judge. so he is justified before 
God, who, not being numbered among sinners, has God for 
a witness and asserter of his righteousness. ‘Thus he must be 
said, therefore, to be justified by works, whose life discovers such 
purity and holiness, as to deserve the character of righteousness 
before the throne of God; or who, by the integrity of his 
works, can answer and satisfy the divine judgment. On the 
other hand, he will be justified by faith, who, being excluded 
from the righteousness of works, apprehends by faith the right- 
eousness of Christ, invested in which, he appears, in the sight 
of: God, not as a sinner, but as a righteous man. Thus we 
simply explain justification to be an acceptance, by which God 
receives us into his favour, and esteems us as righteous persons ; 
and we say that it consists in the remission “of sins and the 
imputation of the righteousness of Christ. 

Ill. For the confirmation of this point there are many plain 
testimonies of Scripture. In the first place, that this is the 
proper and most usual signification of the word, cannot be 
denied. But since it would be too tedious to collect all the 
passages and compare them together, let it suflice to have 


652, INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 11. 


suggested it to the reader; for he will easily observe it of him- 
self. I will only produce a few-places, where this justification, 
which we speak of, is expressly handled. First, where Luke 
relates that ‘‘the people that heard Christ justified God ;” and © 
where Christ pronounces that ‘‘ wisdom is justified of all her 
children.” (x) To justify God, in the former passage, does 
not signify to confer righteousness, which always remains 
perfect in him, although the whole world endeavour to rob him 
of it; nor, in the latter passage, does the justifying of wisdom 
denote making the doctrine of salvation righteous, which is so 
of itself; but both passages imply an ascription to God and to his 
doctrine of the praise which they deserve. Again, when Christ. 
reprehends the Pharisees for ‘justifying themselves,” (0) he 
does not mean that they attained righteousness by doing what 
was right, but that they ostentatiously endeavoured to gain the 
Gharacter of righteousness, of which they were destitute. This 
is better understood by persons who are skilled in the Hebrew 
language ; which gives the appellation of simmers, not only to 
those who are conscious to themselves of sin, but to persons who 
fall under a sentence of condemnation. For Bathsheba, when 
she says, ‘‘ITand my son Solomon shall be counted offenders,” or 
sinners, ( p) confesses no crime, but complains, that she and her 
son will be exposed to the disgrace of being numbered among 
condemned criminals. And it appears, from the context, that 
this word, even in the translation, cannot be understood in any 
other than a relative sense, and that it does not denote the real 
character. But with respect to the present subject, where Paul 
says, ‘“‘ The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the heathen 
through faith,” (¢) what can we understand, but that God im- 
putes righteousness through faith? Again, when he says that 
God ‘“justifieth the ungodly which believeth in Jesus,” (7) 
what can be the meaning, but that he delivers him by the 
blessing of faith from the condemnation deserved by his ungod- 
liness? He speaks still more plainly in the conclusion, when he 
thus exclaims: ‘“‘ Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s 
elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth ? 
It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who also 
maketh intercession for us.” (s) For it is:just as if he had 
said, Who shall accuse them whom God absolves? Who shall 
condemn those for whom Christ intercedes? Justification, 
therefore, is no other than an acquittal from guilt of him who 
was accused, as though his innocence had been proved. Since 
God, therefore, justifies us through the mediation of Christ, he 
acquits us, not by an admission of our personal innocence, but 


(n) Luke vii. 29, 35. (p) 1 Kings i. 21. (r) Rom. iii. 26; iv. 5. 
fo) Luke xvi. 15. (q) Gal. in. 8. (s) Rom. viii. 33, 34. 


CHAP. x1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 653 


by an imputation of righteousness; so that we, who are un- 
righteous in ourselves, are considered as righteous in Christ. 
This is the doctrine preached by Paul in the thirteenth chapter 
of the Acts: “ Through this man is preached unto you the 
forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified 
from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law 
of Moses.” (t) We see that after remission of sins, this jus- 
tification is mentioned, as if by way of explanation: we see 
clearly that it means an acquittal; that it is separated from the 
works of the law ; that it is a mere favour of Christ ; that it is 
apprehended by faith: we see, finally, the interposition of 
a satisfaction, when he says that we are justified from sins by 
Christ. ‘Thus, when it is said, that the publican ‘‘ went down 
to his house justified,’ (w) we cannot say that he obtained 
righteousness by any merit of works. The meaning therefore 
is, that after he had obtained the pardon of his sins, he was 
considered as righteous in the sight of God. He was righteous, 
therefore, not through any approbation of his works, but through 
God’s gracious absolution. Wherefore Ambrose beautifully 
styles confession of sins, a legitimate justification. 

IV. But leaving all contention about the term, if we attend 
to the thing itself, as it is described to us, every doubt will be 
removed. For Paul certainly describes justification as an ac- 
ceptance, when he says to the Ephesians, ‘‘ God hath predesti- 
nated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, 
according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the 
glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted.” (w) 
The meaning of this passage is the same as when in another 
place we are said to be “justified freely by his grace.” (x) 
But in the fourth chapter to the Romans, he first mentions an 
imputation of righteousness, and immediately represents it as 
consisting in remission of sins. ‘“‘ David,’’ says he, ‘ describeth 
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth right- 
eousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniqui- 
ties are forgiven,” &c.(y) He there, indeed, argues not con- 
cerning a branch, but the whole of justification. He also ad- 
duces the definition of it given by David, when he pronounces 
them to be blessed who receive the free forgiveness of their 
sins; whence it appears, that this mghteousness of which he 
speaks is simply opposed to guilt. But the most decisive pas- 
sage of all on this point, is where he teaches us that the grand 
object of the ministry of the gospel is, that we may ‘be re- 
conciled to God,’’ because he is pleased to receive us into his 
favour through Christ, ‘‘not imputing ” our “ trespasses unto” 


(t) Acts xili. 38, 39. (u) Luke xviii. 14. (2) Eph. i. 5, 6. 
(z) Rom. iii. 24. (y) Rom. iv. 6—8. 


654 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK I. 


us. (z) Let the reader carefully examine the whole context; 
for when, by way of explanation, he just after adds, in order to 
describe the method of reconciliation, that Christ, “ who knew 
no sin,” was ‘made sin for us,” (a) he undoubtedly means by 
the term “reconciliation,” no other than justification. Nor 
would there be any truth in what he affirms in another place, 
that we are“ made righteous by the obedience of Christ,” (0) 
unless we are reputed righteous before God, in him, and out 
of ourselves. 

V. But since Osiander has introduced I know not what 
monstrous notion of essential righteousness, by which, though 
he had no intention to destroy justification by grace, yet he 
has involved it in such obscurity as darkens pious minds, and 
deprives them of a serious sense of the gracé of Christ, — it 
will be worth while, before I pass to any thing else, to refute 
this idle notion. In the first place, this speculation is the mere 
fruit of insatiable curiosity. He accumulates, indeed, many 
testimonies of Scripture, to prove that Christ is one with us, 
and we one with him, of which there is no proof necessary ; 
but for want of observing the bond of this union, he bewilders 
himself. For us, however, who hold that we are united to 
Christ by the secret energy of his Spirit, it will be easy to ob- 
viate all his sophisms. He had conceived a notion similar to 
what was held by the Manicheans, so that he wished to trans- 
fuse the Divine essence into men. Hence another discovery 
of his, that Adam was formed in the image of God, because, 
even antecedently to the fall, Christ had been appointed the 
exemplar of the human nature. But for the sake of brevity, I 
shall only insist on the subject now before us. He says that 
we are one with Christ. This we admit; but we at the same 
time deny that Christ’s essence is blended with ours. In the 
next place, we assert that this principle —that Christ is our 
righteousness because he is the eternal God, the fountain of 
righteousness, and the essential righteousness of God — is grossly 
perverted to support his fallacies. 'The reader will excuse me, 
if I now just hint at these things, which the order of the treatise 
requires to be deferred to another place. But though he al- 
leges, in vindication of himself, that by the term essential 
righteousness he only intends to oppose the opinion that we 
are reputed righteous for the sake of Christ, yet he manifestly 
shows, that, not content with that righteousness which has 
been procured for us by the obedience and sacrificial death 
of Christ, he imagines that we are substantially righteous in 
God, by the infusion of lis essence as well as his character. 
‘or this is the reason why he so vehemently contends, that 


(z) 2 Cor. v. 18, 19 (a) 2 Cor. v. 21 ‘b) Rom. v. 19. 


CHAP. x1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 655 


not only Christ, but the Father and the Holy Spirit also dwell 
in us; which, though I allow it to be a truth, yet [ maintain 
that he has grossly perverted. For he ought to have fully con- 
sidered the nature of this inhabitation; namely, that the Fa- 
ther and the Spirit are in Christ; and that as “‘all the fulness 
of the Godhead dwelleth in him,” (z) so in him we possess the 
whole Deity. Whatever, therefore, he advances concerning 
the Father and the Spirit separately, has no other tendency 
but to seduce the simple from Christ. In the next place, he 
introduces a mixture of substances, by which God, transfusing 
himself into us, makes us, as it were, a part of himself. For he 
considers it as of no importance, that the power of the Holy 
Spirit unites us to Christ, so that he becomes our head and we 
become his members, unless his essence be blended with ours. 
But when speaking of the Father and the Spirit, he more 
openly betrays his opinion ; which is, that we are net justified 
by the sole grace of the Mediator, and that righteousness is not 
simply or really offered to us in his person; but that we are 
made partakers of the Divine righteousness when God is essen- 
tially united with us. 

VI. If he had only said, that Christ in justifying us becomes 
ours by an essential union, and that he is our head not only as 
man, but that the essence of his Divine nature also is infused 
into us, —he might have entertained himself with his fancies 
with less mischief, nor perhaps would so great a contention 
have been excited about this reverie. But as this principle is 
like a cuttlefish, which, by the emission of black and turbid 
blood, conceals its many tails, there is a necessity for a vigorous 
Opposition to it, unless we mean to submit to be openly robbed 
of that righteousness which alone affords us any confidence 
concerning our salvation. [or throughout this discussion, the 
terms righteousness and justify are extended by him to two 
things. First, he understands that ‘‘to he justified ” denotes 
not only to be reconciled to God by a free pardon, but also to 
be made righteous; and that righteousness is not a gratuitous 
imputation, but a sanctity and integrity inspired by the Divine 
essence which resides in us. Secondly, he resolutely denies 
that Christ is our righteousness, as having, in the character of a, 
priest, expiated our sins and appeased the Father on our behalf, 
but as being the eternal God and everlasting life. "To prove 
the first assertion, that God justifies not only by pardoning, but 
also by regenerating, he inquires whether God leaves those 
whom he justifies in their natural state, without any reformation 
of their manners. The answer is very easy; as Christ cannot 
be divided, so these two blessings, which we receive together 


(z) Col. ii. 9. 


656 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK III 


in him, are also inseparable.. Whomsoever, therefore, God re- 
ceives into his favour, he likewise gives them the Spirit of 
adoption, by whose power he renews them in his own image. 
But if the brightness of the sun be inseparable from his heat 
shall we therefore say that the earth is warmed by his light, 
and illuminated by his heat? Nothing can be more apposite 
to the present subject than this similitude. ‘The beams of the 
sun quicken and fertilize the earth, his rays brighten and ilu- 
minate it. Here is a mutual and indivisible connection. Yet 
reason itself prohibits us to transfer to one what is peculiar to 
the other. In this confusion of two blessings which Osiander 
obtrudes on us, there is a similar absurdity. For as God ac- 
tually renews to the practice of righteousness those whom he 
gratuitously accepts as righteous, Osiander confounds that gift 
of regeneration with this gracious acceptance, and contends 
that they are one and the same. But the Scripture, though it 
connects them together, yet enumerates them distinctly, that 
the manifold grace of God may be the more evident to us. 
For that passage of Paul is not superfluous, that “Christ is 
made unto us righteousness and sanctification.”(@) And 
whenever he argues, from the salvation procured for us, from 
the paternal. love of God, and from the grace of Christ, that we 
are called to holiness and purity, he plainly indicates that it is 
one thing to be justified, and another thing to be made new 
creatures. When Osiander appeals to the Scripture, he cor- 
rupts as many passages as he cites. ‘The assertion of Paul, 
that “to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that 
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteous- 
ness,’ (b) is explained by Osiander to denote making a man 
righteous. With the same temerity he corrupts the whole of 
that fourth chapter to the Romans, and hesitates not to impose 
the same false gloss on the passage just cited, ‘‘ Who shall lay 
any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifi- 
eth;’’ where it is evident that the apostle is treating simply 
of accusation and absolution, and that his meaning wholly rests 
on the antithesis. His folly, therefore, betrays itself both in 
his arguments and in his citations of Scripture proofs. With 
no more propriety does he treat of the word righteousness, 
when he says, ‘that faith was reckoned to Abraham for 
righteousness,” because that, after having embraced Christ, 
(who is the righteousness of God, and God himself,) he was 
eminent for the greatest virtues. Whence it appears, that of 
two good parts, he erroneously makes one corrupt whole; for 
the righteousness there mentioned does not belong to the whole 
course of Abraham’s life; but rather the Spirit testifies that, 


(a) 1 Cor. i. 30. (6) Rom. iv. 5. 


CHAP. xt. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 657 


notwithstanding the singular eminence of Abraham’s virtues, 
and his laudable and persevering advancement in them, yet he 
did not please God any otherwise than in receiving by faith the 
grace offered in the promise. Whence it follows, that in justi- 
fication there is no regard paid to works, as Paul conclusively 
argues in that passage. 

VII. His objection, that the power of justifying belongs not 
to faith of itself, but only as it receives Christ, I readily admit. 
For it faith were to justify of itself, or by an intrinsic efficacy, 
as it is expressed, being always weak and imperfect, it never 
could effect this but in part; and thus it would be a defective 
justification, which would only confer on us a partial salvation. 
Now, we entertain no such notion as the objection supposes ; on 
the contrary, we affirm that, strictly speaking, ‘it is God that 
justifies ;”” and then we transfer this to Christ, because he is 
given to us for righteousness. fF'aith we compare to a vessel ; 
for unless we come empty with the mouth of our soul open to im- 
plore the grace of Christ, we cannot receive Christ. Whence it 
may be inferred, that we do not detract from Christ the power 
of justifying, when we teach that faith receives him before it 
receives his righteousness. Nevertheless, I cannot admit the 
intricate comparisons of this sophist, when he says that faith is 
Christ ; as though an earthen vessel were a treasure, because 
gold is concealed in it. For faith, although intrinsically it is 
of no dignity or value, justifies us by an application of Christ, 
just as a vessel full of money constitutes aman rich. 'There- 
fore I maintain that faith, which is only the instrument by 
which righteousness is received, cannot without absurdity be 
confounded with Christ, who is the material cause, and at 
once the author and dispenser of so great a benefit. We have 
now removed the difficulty as to the sense in which the word 
faith ought to be understood, when it is applied to justification. 

VIII. ‘Respecting the reception of Christ, he goes still greater 
lengths; asserting that the internal word is received by the mi- 
nistry of the external word, by which he would divert us from 
the priesthood of Christ and the person of the Mediator, to his 
eternal divinity. We do not divide Christ, but we maintain 
that the same person, who, by reconciling us to the Father in 
his own flesh, has given us righteousness, is the eternal Word 
of God; and we confess that he could not otherwise have dis- 
charged the office of Mediator, and procured righteousness for 
us, if he were not the eternal God’) But the opinion of Osian- 
der is, that since Christ is bothyGod and man, he is made 
righteousness to us, in respect of his Divine, not his human 
nature. Now, if this properly belong to the Divinity, it will 
not be peculiar to Christ, but common also to the Father and 
the Spirit ; since the righteousness of one is the same as that 

VOL. I. 83 


658 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 111. 


of the others. Besides, what has been naturally eternal, can- 
not with propriety be said to be ‘‘made unto us.” But though 
we grant that God is made righteousness unto us, how will it 
agree with the clause which is inserted, that “ of God,” he “‘is 
made unto us righteousness?” This is certainly peculiar to 
the character of the Mediator, who, though he contains in 
himself the Divine nature, yet is designated by this appropriate 
title, by which he is distinguished from the Father and the 
Spirit. But he ridiculously triumphs in that single expression 
of Jeremiah, where he promises that “the Lord,” Jehovah, 
will be “ our righteousness.” (c) He can deduce nothing from 
this, but that Christ, who is our righteousness, is God mani- 
fested in the flesh. We have elsewhere recited from Paul’s 
sermon, that ‘‘God hath purchased the Church with his own 
blood.” (d) If any should infer from this, that the blood by 
which our sins were expiated, was Divine, and part of the 
Divine nature, who could bear so monstrous an error? But 
Osiander thinks he has gained every thing’ by this very puerile 
cavil ; he swells, exults, and fills many pages with his swelling 
words, though the passage is simply and readily explained, by 
saying that Jehovah, when he should become the seed of 
David, would be the righteousness of the pious; and in the 
same sense Isaiah informs us, ‘by his knowledge shall my 
righteous servant justify many.’ (e) Let us remark, that the 
speaker here is the Father; that he attributes to his Son the 
office of justifying ; that he adds as a reason, that he is right- 
eous ; and that he places the mode or means of effecting this, 
in the doctrine by which Christ is made known. For it is 
more suitable to understand the word ny7 in a passive sense. 
Hence I conclude, first, that Christ was made righteousness 
when he assumed the form of a servant; secondly, that he 
justifies us by his own obedience to the Father; and, therefore, 
that he does this for us, not according to his Divine nature, but 
by reason of the dispensation committed to him. For though 
God alone is the fountain of righteousness, and we are righteous 
only by a participation of him, yet, because we have been alien- 
ated from his righteousness through the unhappy breach oe- 
casioned by the fall,we are under the necessity of descending to 
this inferior remedy, to be justified by Christ, by the efficacy of 
his death and resurrection. 

IX. If Osiander object, that the excellence of this work 
surpasses the nature of man, and therefore can be ascribed only 
to the Divine nature, — the former part of the objection I admit, 
but in the latter I maintain that he is grossly mistaken. For 
although Christ could neither purify our souls with his blood, 


(c) Jer. xxiii. 6; xxxiii. 16. (d) Acts xx. 28 (e) Isaiah lili 11. 


CHAP. x1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 659 


nor appease the F'ather by his sacrifice, nor absolve us from 
guilt, nor, in short, perform the functions of a priest, if he were 
not truly God, because human power would have been un- 
equal to so great a burden, yet it is certain that he performed 
all these things in his human nature. For if it be inquired, 
How are we justified? Paul replies, ‘ By the obedience ” 
of Christ.(f) But has he obeyed in any other way than 
by assuming the form of a servant? Hence we infer, that 
righteousness *s presented to us in his flesh. In the other 
passage also, which I much wonder that Osiander is not: 
ashamed to quote so frequently, Paul places the source of 
righteousness wholly in the humanity of Christ. ‘ He hath 
made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might 
be made the righteousness of God in him.” (g) Osiander lays 
great stress on “the righteousness of God,” and triumphs as 
though he had evinced it to be his notion of essential right- 
eousness ; whereas the words convey a very different idea, — 
that we are righteous through the expiation effected by Christ. 
That ‘‘the righteousness of God” means that which God 
approves, ought to have been known to the youngest novices ; 
just as in John “the praise of God” is opposed to “the praise 
of men.” (i) I know that “ the righteousness of God” some- 
times denotes that of which he is the author, and which he 
bestows upon us; but, without any observation of mine, the 
judicious reader will perceive that the meaning of this passage 
is only, that we stand before the tribunal of God supported by 
the atoning death of Christ. Nor is the term of such great 
importance, provided that Osiander coincides with us in this, 
that we are justified in Christ, inasmuch as he was made an 
explatory sacrifice for us; which is altogether incompatible 
with his Divine nature. For this reason, when Christ designs 
to seal the righteousness and salvation which he has presented 
to us, he exhibits a certain pledge of it in his flesh. He calls 
himself, indeed, “living bread ;”’ but adds, by way of explana- 
tion, ‘‘my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.” 
This method of instruction is discovered in the sacraments ; 
which, although they direct our faith to the whole of the per- 
son of Christ, not to a part of him only, yet at the same 
time teach that the matter of justification and salvation resides 
in his human nature ; not that he either justifies or vivifies, of 
himself as a mere man, but because it has pleased God to ma- 
nifest in the Mediator that which was incomprehensible and 
hidden in himself. Wherefore I am accustomed to say, that 
Christ is, as it were, a fountain opened to us, whence we may 
draw what were otherwise concealed and useless in that secret 


(f) Rom. v. 19. (g) 2 Cor. v. 21. (h) John xii. 43. 


660 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox ur. 


and deep fountain which flows to us in the person of the 
Mediator. In this manner, and in this sense, provided he will 
submit to the clear and forcible arguments which I have 
adduced, I do not deny that Christ justifies us, as he is God 
and man, and that this work is common also to the Father and 
the Spirit ; and, finally, that the righteousness of which Christ 
makes us partakers, is the eternal righteousness of the eternal 
God. 

X. Moreover, that his cavils may not deceive the inexperi- 
enced, I confess that-we are destitute of this incomparable 
blessing, till Christ becomes ours. I attribute, therefore, the 
highest importance to the connection between the head and 
members ; to the inhabitation of Christ in our hearts ; in a word, 
to the mystical union by which we enjoy him, so that being 
made ours, he makes us partakers of the blessings with which 
he is furnished. We do not, then, contemplate him at a dis- 
tance out of ourselves, that his righteousness may be imputed 
to us; but because we have put him on, and are ingrafted into 
his body, and because he has deigned to unite us to himself, 
therefore we glory in a participation of his righteousness. 
Thus we refute the cavil of Osiander, that faith is considered 
by us as righteousness; as though we despoiled Christ of his 
right, when we affirm, that by faith we come to him empty, 
that he alone may fill us with his grace. But Osiander, de- 
Spising this spiritual connection, insists on a gross mixture of 
Christ with believers; and therefore invidiously gives the ap- 
pellation of Zuinglians to all who do not subscribe to his fa- 
natical error concerning essential righteousness; because they 
are not of opinion that Christ is substantially eaten in the sa- 
cred supper. As for myself, indeed, I consider it the highest 
honour to be thus reproached by a man so proud and so ab- 
sorbed in his own delusions ; although he attacks not me alone, 
but other writers well known in the world, whom he ought to 
have treated with modest respect. But this does not at all 
affect me, who am supporting no private interest ; wherefore 
I the more unreservedly advocate this cause, conscious that I 
am free from every sinister motive. His great importunity in 
insisting on essential righteousness, and an essential inhabita- 
tion of Christ in us, goes to this length — first, that God trans- 
fuses himself into us by a gross mixture of himself with us, as 
he pretends that there is a carnal eating in the sacred supper ; 
secondly, that God inspires his righteousness into us, by which 
we are really righteous with him, since, according to this man, 
such righteousness is as really God himself, as the goodness, or 
holiness, or perfection of God. I shall not take much trouble 
to refute the testimonies adduced by him, which he violently 
perverts from the celestial to the present state. By Christ, says 


CHAP. XI] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. . 661 


Peter, “‘are given unto us exceeding great and precious pro- 
mises ; that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine na- 
ture.” (¢) As though we were now such as the gospel promises 
we shall be at the second advent of Christ; nay, John apprizes 
us, that then ‘‘ we shall be like God ; for we shall see him as he 
is.’ (%) Ihave thought proper to give the reader only a small 
specimen, and endeavoured to pass over these impertinences, 
not that it is difficult to refute them, but because I am unwill- 
ing to be tedious in labouring to no purpose. 

XI. There is yet more latent poison in the second particular,- 
in which he maintains, that we are righteous together with 
God. I think I have already sufficiently demonstrated, that 
although this dogma were not so pestiferous, yet because it is 
weak and unsatisfactory, and evaporates through its own inani- 
ty, it ought justly to be rejected by all judicious and pious 
readers. But this is an impiety not to be tolerated — under the 
pretext of a twofold righteousness to weaken the assurance of 
salvation, and to elevate us above the clouds, that we may not 
embrace by faith the grace of expiation, and call upon God 
with tranquillity of mind. Osiander ridicules those who say 
that justification is a forensic term, because it is necessary for 
us to be actually righteous: nor is there any thing that he more 
dislikes than the doctrine that we are justified by gratuitous 
imputation. Now, if God do not justify by absolving and par- 
doning us, what is the meaning of this declaration of Paul ? 
‘God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not 
imputing their trespasses unto them. For he hath made him 
to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the 
righteousness of God in him.” (/) First I find, that they are 
accounted righteous who are reconciled to God: the manner is 
specified, that God justifies by pardoning ; just as, in another 
passage, justification is opposed to accusation ; which antithesis 
clearly demonstrates, that the form of expression is borrowed 
from the practice of courts. Nor is there any one, but tolerably 
versed in the Hebrew language, provided at the same time that 
he be in his sound senses, who can be ignorant that this is the 
original of the phrase, and that this is its import and mean- 
ing. Now, let Osiander answer me whether, where Paul says 
that ‘‘ David describeth righteousness without works, saying, 
Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven,” (2) whether, [ 
say, this be a complete definition or a partial one. Certainly 
Paul does not adduce the testimony of the Psalmist, as teaching 
that pardon of sins is a part of righteousness, or concurs to the 
justification of a man; but he includes the whole of righteous- 
ness in a free remission, pronouncing, ‘‘ Blessed are they whose 


(7) 2 Peter i. 4. (k) 1 John iti. 2. () 2 Cor. v. 19, 21. (m) Rom. iv. 6—8. 


662, INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 111. 


iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is 
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.” He thence 
estimates and judges of the felicity of such a man, because in 
this way he becomes righteous, not actually, but by imputation. 
Osiander objects, that it would be dishonourable to God, and 
contrary to his nature, if he justified those who still remain 
actually impious. But it should be remembered that, as I have 
already observed, the grace of justification is inseparable from 
regeneration, although they are distinct things. But since it is 
sufficiently known from experience, that some relics of sin 
always remain in the righteous, the manner of their justifica- 
tion must of necessity be very different from that of their reno- 
vation to newness of life. For the latter God commences in 
his elect, and as long as they live carries it on gradually, and 
sometimes slowly, so that they are always obnoxious at his tri- 
bunal to the sentence of death. He justifies them, however, 
not in a partial manner, but so completely, that they may 
boldly appear in heaven, as being invested with the purity of 
Christ. For no portion of righteousness could satisfy our con- 
sciences, till we have ascertained that God is pleased with us, 
as being unexceptionably righteous before him. Whence it 
follows, that the doctrine of justification is perverted and totally 
overturned, when doubts are injected into the mind, when the 
confidence of salvation is shaken, when bold and fearless wor- 
ship is interrupted, and when quiet and tranquillity with spirit- 
ual joy are not established. Whence Paul argues from the 
incompatibility of things contrary to each other, that the in- 
heritance is not of the law, because then faith would be 
rendered vain ; (2) which, if it be fixed upon works, must in- 
evitably fall; since not even the most holy of all saints will 
find them afford any ground of confidence. This difference 
between justification and regeneration (which Osiander con- 
founds together, and denominates a twofold righteousness) is 
beautifully expressed by Paul; for, speaking of his real right- 
eousness, or of the integrity which he possessed, to which Osi- 
ander gives the appellation of essential righteousness, he sor- 
rowfully exclaims, ‘“O wretched man that I am! who shall 
deliver me from the body of this death?” (0) But resorting to 
the righteousness which is founded in the Divine mercy alone, 
he nobly triumphs over life, and death, and reproaches, and 
famine, and the sword, and all adverse things and_ persons. 
‘Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is 
God that justifieth. For I am persuaded, that nothing shall be 
able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ 
Jesus our Lord.’’(p) He plainly declares himself to be pos- 


(n) Gal. ii 18. (0) Rom. vii. 24. (p) Rom. viii. 33, 38, 39. 


CHAP. XtI.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 663 


sessed of that righteousness, which alone is fully sufficient for 
salvation in the sight of God; so that the miserable servitude, 
in a consciousness of which he was just before bewailing his 
condition, neither diminishes, nor in the smallest degree inter- 
rupts, the confidence with which he triumphs. ‘This diversity is 
sufficiently known, and is even familiar to all the saints, who 
groan under the burden of their iniquities, and yet with victo- 
rious confidence rise superior to every fear. But the objection 
of Osiander, that it is incongruous to the nature of God, recoils 
upon himself; for, although he invests the saints with a two- 
fold righteousness, as with a garment covered with skins, he is, 
notwithstanding, constrained to acknowledge that no man can 
please God without the remission of his sins. If this be true, 
he should at least grant that they who are not actually right- 
eous, are accounted righteous in proportion, as it is expressed, to 
the degree of imputation. But how far shall a sinner extend 
this gracious acceptance, which is substituted in the place of 
righteousness? Shall he estimate it by the weight? Truly 
he will be in great uncertainty to which side to incline the 
balance ; because he will not be able to assume to himself as 
much righteousness as may be necessary to his confidence. It 
is well that he, who would wish to prescribe laws to God, is not 
the arbiter of this cause. But this address of David to God will 
remain: “That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, 
and be clear when thou judgest.” (q¢) And what extreme arro- 
gance it is to condemn the supreme Judge when he freely ab- 
solves, and not to be satisfied with this answer, ‘I will show 
mercy on whom I will show mercy!” (7) And yet the inter- 
cession of Moses, which God checked with this reply, was not 
that he would spare none, but that, though they were guilty, he 
would remove their guilt and absolve them all at once. We 
affirm, therefore, that those who were undone are justified be- . 
fore God by the obliteration of their sins; because, sin being 
the object of his hatred, he can love none but those whom he 
justifies. But this is a wonderful method of justification, that 
sinners, being invested with the righteousness of Christ, dread 
not the judgment which they have deserved; and that, while 
they justly condemn themselves, they are accounted righteous 
out of themselves. 

XIf. But the readers must be cautioned to pay a strict 
attention to the mystery which Osiander boasts that he will 
not conceal from them. For, after having contended with 
great prolixity, that we do not obtain favour with God solely 
through the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, because 
‘t would be impossible for him to esteem those as righteous 


(q) Psalm li. 4. (r) Exod. xxxin. 19. 


664 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book 111. 


who are not so, (I use his own words,) he at length concludes, 
that Christ is given to us for righteousness, not in respect of 
his human, but of his Divine nature; and that, though this 
righteousness‘can only be found in the person of the Mediator, 
yet it is the righteousness, not of man, but of God. He does 
not combine two righteousnesses, but evidently deprives the 
humanity of Christ of all concern in the matter of justification. 
It is worth while, however, to hear what arguments he 
adduces. It is said in the passage referred to, that ‘ Christ is 
made unto us wisdom,’’(s) which is applicable only to the 
eternal Word. Neither, therefore, is Christ, considered as man 
our righteousness. I reply, that the only begotten Son of 
God was indeed his eternal wisdom;. but this title is here 
ascribed to him by Paul in a different sense, because “in him 
are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (¢) What, 
therefore, he had with the Father, he has manifested to us; 
and so what Paul says, refers not to the essence of the Son of 
God, but to our benefit, and is nghtly applied to the humanity 
of Christ ; because, although he was a light shining in dark- 
ness before his assumption of the flesh, yet he was a hidden 
light till he appeared in the nature of man “as the Sun of 
righteousness ;”’? (w) wherefore he calls himself ‘the hght of 
the world.” (w) Osiander betrays his folly likewise in object- 
ing, that justification exceeds the power of angels and. men; 
since it depends not upon the dignity of any creature, but upon 
the appomtment of God. Tf angels were desirous to offer a 
satisfaction to God, it would be unavailing ; because they have 
not been appointed to it. This was peculiar to the man Christ, 
who was “made under the law, to redeem us from the curse 
of the law.” (2) He likewise very unjustly accuses those who 
deny that Christ is our righteousness according to his Divine 
_nature, of retaining only one part of Christ, and (what is 
worse) making two Gods; because, though they acknowledge 
that God dwells in us, yet they flatly deny that we are right- 
eous through the righteousness of God. For if we call Christ 
the author of life in consequence of his having suffered death, 
‘that he might destroy him that had the power of death,” (y) 
it is not to be inferred that we deny this honour to his com- 
plete person, as God manifested in the flesh: we only state 
with precision the means by which the righteousness of God is 
conveyed to us, so that we may enjoy it. In this, Osiander 
has fallen into a very pernicious error. We do not deny, that 
what is openly exhibited to us in Christ flows from the secret 
grace and power of God ; nor do we refuse to admit, that the 


(s) 1 Cor. i. 30. (uw) Mal. iv. 2. (x) Gal. iii. 13; iv. 4. 
(t) Col. ii. 3. (w) John viti. 12. (y) Heb. ii. 14. 


cHap. x1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 665 


righteousness conferred on us by Christ is the righteousness 
of God as proceeding from him; but we constantly maintain 
that we have righteousness and life in the death and resurrec- 
tion of Christ. I pass over that shameful accumulation of 
passages, with which, without any discrimination, and even 
without common sense, he has burdened the reader, in order to 
evince, that wherever mention is made of righteousness, it 
ought to be understood of this essential righteousness; as 
where David implores the righteousness of God to assist him ; 
which as he does above a hundred times, Osiander hesitates 
not to pervert such a great number of passages. Nor is there 
any thing more solid in his other objection, that the term 
“righteousness”? is properly and rightly applied to that by 
which we are excited to rectitude of conduct, and that God 
alone ‘‘ worketh in us both to will and to do.’ (z) Now, we 
do not deny, that God renews us by his Spirit to holiness and 
righteousness of life ; but it should first be inquired, whether 
he does this immediately by himself, or through the medium 
of his Son, with whom he has deposited all the plenitude of 
his Spirit, that with his abundance he might relieve the neces- 
sities of his members. Besides, though righteousness flows to 
us from the secret fountain of the Divinity, yet it does not 
follow that Christ, who in the flesh sanctified himself for our 
sakes, (a) is our righteousness with respect to his Divine 
nature. Equally frivolous is his assertion, that Christ himself 
was righteous with the righteousness of God; because, if he 
had not been influenced by the will of the Father, not even he 
could have performed the part assigned him. For though it 
has been elsewhere observed, that all the merit of Christ him- 
self flows from the mere favour of God, yet this affords no 
countenance to the fanciful notion with which Osiander fasci- 
nates his own eyes and those of the injudicious. For who 
would admit the inference, that because God is the original 
source of our righteousness, we are therefore essentially right- 
eous, and have the essence of the Divine mghteousness residing 
inus? In redeeming the Church (Isaiah says) God “ put on 
righteousness as a breastplate ;’’ (b) but was it to spoil Christ of 
the armour which he had given him, and to prevent his being 
a perfect Redeemer? ‘The prophet only meant that God 
borrowed nothing extrinsic to himself, and had no assistance 
in the work of our redemption. Paul has briefly intimated 
the same in other words, saying that he has given us salvation 
in order ‘to declare his righteousness.” (¢) Nor does this 
at all contradict what he states in another place, “that by the 


(z) Phil. ii. 13. (6) Isaiah lix. 17. 
(a) John xvii. 19. (c) Rom. it. 24, 25. 


VOL. I. 84 


4 


666 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK III. 


obedience of one we are made righteous.” (d) ‘To conclude: 
whoever fabricates a twofold righteousness, that wretched 
souls may not rely wholly and exclusively on the Divine 
mercy, makes Christ an object of contempt, and crowns him 
with platted thorns. 

XIII. But as many persons imagine righteousness to be 
composed of faith and works, let us also prove, before we pro- 
ceed, that the righteousness of faith is so exceedingly different 
from that of works, that if one be established, the other must 
necessarily be subverted. The apostle says, ‘TI count all 
things but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, 
not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but 
that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness 
which is of God by faith.” (e) Here we see a comparison of 
two opposites, and an implication that his own righteousness 
must be forsaken by him who wishes to obtain the righteous- 
ness of Christ. Wherefore, in another place, he states this to 


have been the cause of the ruin of the Jews, that, “ going 


about to establish their own righteousness, they have not sub- 
mitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.” (f) If, by 
establishing our own righteousness, we reject the righteousness 
of God, then, in order to obtain the latter, the former must 
doubtless be entirely renounced. He conveys the same senti- 
ment when he asserts, that “‘ boasting is excluded. By what 
law? of works? Nay; but by the law of faith.” (g¢) Whence 
it follows, that as long as there remains the least. particle of 
righteousness in our works, we retain some cause for boasting. 
But if faith excludes all boasting, the righteousness of works 
can by no means be associated with the righteousness of faith. 
‘To this purpose he speaks so clearly in the fourth chapter to 
the Romans, as to leave no room for cavil or evasion. ‘“If 
Abraham (says he) were justified by works, he hath whereof 
o glory.” He adds, ‘ but” he hath “ not” whereof to glory 
“before God.” (h) It follows, therefore, that he was not 
justified by works. 'Then he advances another argument from 
two opposites. ‘To him that worketh is the reward not 
reckoned of grace, but of debt.’ (7) But righteousness is 
attributed to faith through grace. Therefore it is pot from the 
merit of works. Adieu, therefore, to the fanciful notion of 
those who imagine a righteousness compounded of faith and 
works. 

XIV. 'The sophists, who amuse and delight themselves with 
perversion of the Scripture and vain cavils, think they have 
found a most excellent subterfuge, when they explain works, 
in these passages, to mean those which men yet unregenerate 


(d) Rom. v. 19. (f) Rom. x. 3. (h) Rom. iv. 2. 
(e) Phil. in. 8, 9. (g) Rom iii. 27. (t) Rom. iv. 4. 


CHAP. XI.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 667 


perform without the grace of Christ, merely through the un- 
assisted efforts of their own free-will ; and deny that they relate 
to spiritual works. Thus, according to them, a man is jus- 
tified both by faith and by works, only the works are not 
properly his own, but the gifts of Christ and the fruits of 
regeneration. For they say that Paul spoke in this manner, 
only that the Jews, who relied on their own strength, might be 
convinced of their folly in arrogating righteousness to them- 
selves, whereas it is conferred on us solely by the Spinit of 
Christ, not by any exertion properly our own. But they do 
not observe, that in the contrast of legal and evangelical right- 
eousness, Which Paul introduces in another place, all works are 
excluded, by what title soever they may be distinguished. 
For he teaches that this is the righteousness of the law, that he 
who has fulfilled the command of the law shall obtain salva- 
tion ;() but that the righteousness of faith consists in believing 
that Christ has died and is risen again. (2) Besides, we shall see, 
as we proceed, in its proper place, that sanctification and right- 
eousness are separate blessings of Christ. Whence it follows, 
that even spiritual works are not taken into the account, when 
the power of justifying is attributed to faith. And the assertion 
of Paul, in the place just cited, that Abraham has not whereof 
to glory before God, since he was not justified by works, ought 
not to be restricted to any literal appearance or external display 
of virtue, or to any efforts of free-will; but though the life of 
the patriarch was spiritual, and almost angelic, yet his works 
did not possess sufficient merit to justify him before God. 

XV. The errors of the schoolmen, who mingle their pre- 
parations, are rather more gross; but they instil into the simple 
and incautious a doctrine equally corrupt, while under the 
pretext of the Spirit and of grace, they conceal the mercy of 
God, which alone can calm the terrors of the conscience. We 
confess, indeed, with Paul, that ‘“‘the doers of the law are 
justified before God ;’’(m) but since we are all far from being 
observers of the law, we conclude, that those works which 
should be principally available to justification, afford us no as- 
sistance, because we are destitute of them. With respect to 
the common Papists, or schoolmen, they are in this matter 
doubly deceived ; both in denominating faith a certainty of 
conscience in expecting from God a reward of merit, and in 
explaining the grace of God to be, not an imputation of gra- 
tuitous righteousness, but the Spirit assisting to the pursuit of 
holiness. They read in the apostle, ‘‘ He that cometh to God 
must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that 
diligently seek him.” (7) But they do not consider the man- 


(k) Rom. x. 5, &c. (L) Gal. iii. 11. (m) Rom. ii. 13. (n) Heb. xi. 6 


668 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK m1, 


ner of seeking him. And that they mistake the sense of the 
word ‘“‘grace,’”’ is evident from their writings. For Lombard 
represents justification by Christ as given us intwo ways. He 
says, ‘‘ The death of Christ justifies us, first, because it excites 
charity in our hearts, by which we are made actually righteous ; 
secondly, because it destroys sin, by which the devil held us in 
captivity, so that now it cannot condemn us.” We see how 
he considers the grace of God in justification to consist in our 
being directed to good works by the grace of the Holy Spirit. 
He wished, indeed, to follow the opinion of Augustine ; but he 
follows him at a great distance, and even deviates considerably 
from a close imitation of him; for whatever he finds clearly 
stated by him, he obscures, and whatever he finds pure in 
him, he corrupts. The schools have always been running into 
worse and worse errors, till at length they have precipitated 
themselves into a kind of Pelagianism. Nor, indeed, is the 
opinion of Augustine, or at least his manner of expression, to 
be altogether admitted. For though he excellently despoils 
man of all the praise of righteousness, and ascribes the whole 
to the grace of God, yet he refers grace to sanctification, m 
which we are regenerated by the Spirit to newness of life. 
XVI. The Scripture, when speaking of the righteousness 
of faith, leads us to something very different. It teaches us, 
that being diverted from the contemplation of our own works, 
we should regard nothing but the mercy of God and the per- 
fection of Christ. For it states this to be the order of jus- 
tification; that from the beginning God deigns to embrace 
sinful man with his pure and gratuitous goodness, contemplating 
nothing in him to excite mercy, but his misery; (for God be- 
holds him utterly destitute of all good works ;) deriving from 
himself the motive for blessing him, that he may affect the sinner 
himself with a sense of his supreme goodness, who, losing all 
confidence in his own works, rests the whole of his salvation 
on the Divine mercy. ‘This is the sentiment of faith, by which 
the sinner comes to the enjoyment of his salvation, when he 
knows from the doctrine of the gospel that he is reconciled to 
God; that having obtained remission of sins, he is justified by 
the intervention of the righteousness of Christ; and though 
regenerated by the Spirit of God, he thinks on everlasting 
righteousness reserved for him, not in the good works to which 
‘he devotes himself, but solely in the righteousness of Christ. 
When all these things shall have been particularly examined, 
they will afford a perspicuous explication of our opinion. 'They 
will, however, be better digested in a different order from that 
in which they have been proposed. But it is of little impor- 
tance, provided they are so connected with each other, that we 
may have the whole subject rightly stated and well confirmed. 


CHAP. xI.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 669 


XVII. Here it is proper to recall to remembrance the relation 
we have before stated between faith and the gospel ; since the 
reason why faith is said to justify, is, that it receives and em- 
braces the righteousness offered in the gospel. But its being 
offered by the gospel absolutely excludes all consideration of 
works. ‘This Paul very clearly demonstrates on various occa- 
sions ; and particularly in two passages. In his Epistle to the 
Romans, contrasting the law and the gospel, he says, ‘‘ Moses 
describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the man 
which doeth those things shall hve by them. But the right- 
eousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise: That if thou 
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe 
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou 
shalt be saved.” (0) Do you perceive how he thus discriminates 
between the law and the gospel, that the former attributes 
righteousness to works, but the latter bestows it freely, without 
the assistance of works? It is a remarkable passage, and may 
serve to extricate us from a multitude of difficulties, if we 
understand that the mghteousness which is given us by the 
gospel is free from all legal conditions. This is the reason 
why he more than once strongly opposes the promise to the 
law. ‘‘If the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of pro- 
mise ;” (p) and more in the same chapter to the same purpose. 
It is certain that the law also has its promises. Wherefore, un- 
less we will confess the comparison to be improper, there must 
be something distinct and different in the promises of the gos- 
pel. Now, what can that be, but that they are gratuitous and 
solely dependent on the Divine mercy, whilst the promises of 
the law depend on the condition of works? Nor let any one 
object, that it is only the righteousness which men would 
obtrude on God from their own natural powers and free-will 
that is rejected ; since Paul teaches it as a universal truth, that 
the precepts of the law are unprofitable, because, not only 
among the vulgar, but even among the very best of men, there | 
is not one who can fulfil them. (q) Love is certainly the 
principal branch of the law: when the Spirit. of God forms us 
to it, why does it not constitute any part of our righteousness, 
but because even in the saints it is imperfect, and therefore of 
itself deserves no reward ? 

XVIII. The other passage is as follows: ‘That no man is 
justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident ; for, The 
just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith; but, The 
man that doeth them shall live in them.” (7) How could this 
argument be supported, unless it were certain that works do 
not come into the account of faith, but are to be entirely sepa- 


(0) Rom. x. 5, 6, 9. (q) Rom. iti. 10, &e. 
(p) Gal. ii. 18. (r) Gal. ii. 11, 12. 


670 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 111. 


rated from it? The law, he says, differs from faith. Why? 
Because works are required to the righteousness of the law. It 
follows, therefore, that works are not required to the righteous- 
ness of faith. From this statement it appears, that they who 
are justified by faith, are justified without the merit of works, 
and beyond the merit of works; for faith receives that right- 
eousness which the gospel bestows; and the gospel differs from 
the law in this respect, that it does not confine righteousness to 
works, but rests it entirely on the mercy of God. He argues 
in a similar manner to the Romans, that ‘‘ Abraham had not 
whereof to glory; for he believed God, and it was counted 
unto him for righteousness ;’’ (s) and by way of confirmation 
he subjoins, that then there is room for the righteousness of 
faith when there are no works which merit any reward. He 
tells us, that where there are works, they receive a reward 
“of debt,” but that what is given to faith is ‘of grace ;” for 
this is the clear import of the language which he there uses. 
When he adds, a little after, ‘‘ Therefore it is of faith” that we 
obtain the inheritance, in order “that it might be by grace,” (¢) 
he infers that the inheritance is gratuitous, becatise it is re- | 
ceived by faith: and why is this, but because faith, without 
any assistance of works, depends wholly on the Divine mercy? 
And in the same sense undoubtedly he elsewhere teaches us, 
that “the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, 
being witnessed by the law and the prophets; ” (w) because, by 
excluding the law, he denies that righteousness is assisted by 
works, or that we obtain it by working, but asserts that we 
come empty in order to receive it. 

XIX. The reader will now discover, with what justice the 
sophists of the present day cavil at our doctrine, when we say 
that a man is justified by faith only. That a man is justified 
by faith, they do not deny, because the Scripture so often de- 
clares it; but since it is nowhere expressly said to be by faith 
_ only, they cannot bear this addition to be made. But what 
reply will they give to these words of Paul, where he con- 
tends that “righteousness is not of faith unless it be gratui- 
tous?”?(w) How can any thing gratuitous consist with 
works? And by what cavils will they elude what he asserts 
in another place, that in the gospel “is the righteousness of 
God revealed?” (x) If righteousness is revealed in the gospel, 
it is certainly not a mutilated and partial, but a complete and 
perfect one. ‘The law, therefore, has no concern in it. And 
respecting this exclusive particle, only, they rest on an evasion 
which is not only false, but glaringly ridiculous. For does not 


(s) Rom. iv. 2, 3. (t) Rom. iv. 16. -(u) Rom. iii. 21. 
(w) Rom. iv. 2. (z) Rom. i. 17. 


CHAP. x1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. b71 


he most completely attribute every thing to faith alone, who 
denies every thing to works? What is the meaning of these 
expressions of Paul? ‘Righteousness is manifested without 
the law,” “justified freely by his grace,’ ‘justified without 
the deeds of the law.” (y) Here they have an ingenious sub- 
terfuge, which, though it is not of their own invention, but 
borrowed from Origen and some of the ancients, is nevertheless 
very absurd. ‘They pretend that the works excluded are the 
ceremonial works of the law, not the moral works. They 
have made such a proficiency by their perpetual disputations, 
that they have forgotten the first elements of logic. Do they 
suppose the apostle to have been insane, when he adduced 
these passages in proof of his doctrine? ‘The man that 
doeth them shall live in them;’’ and ‘Cursed is every one 
that continueth not in all things which are written in the 
book of the law to do them.’’(z) If they be in their sober 
senses, they will not assert that life was promised to the ob- 
servers of ceremonies, and the curse denounced merely on the 
transgressors of them. If these places are to be understood of 
the moral law, it is beyond a doubt, that moral works likewise. 
are excluded from the power to justify. 'T'o the same purpose 
are these arguments which he uses: “ For by the law is the 
knowledge of sin;’’ consequently not righteousness. ‘ Be- 
cause the law worketh wrath,” (a) therefore not righteousness. 
Since the law cannot assure our consciehces, neither can it 
confer righteousness. Since faith is counted for righteousness, 
consequently righteousness is not a reward of works, but is 
gratuitously bestowed. Since we are justified by faith, boast- 
ing is precluded. “If there had been a law given which could 
have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the 
law. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the 
promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that 
believe.” (b) Let them idly pretend, if they dare, that these 
are applicable to ceremonies, not to morals; but even children 
would explode such consummate impudence. We may therefore 
be assured, that when the power of justifying is denied to the 
law, the whole law is included. 

XX. If any one should wonder why the apostle does not 
content himself with simply mentioning works, but says works 
of the law, the reason is obvious. For though works are so 
greatly esteemed, they derive their value from the Divine ap- 
probation rather than from any intrinsic excellence. For who 
can dare to boast to God of any righteousness of works, but 
what he has approved?) Who can dare to claim any reward as 
due to them, but what he has promised? It is owing, therefore, 


y) Rom. iii. 21, 24, 28. (a) Rom. iii. 20; iv. 15. 
(z) Gal. iii. 10, 12. (b) Gal. iii. 21, 22. 


672 INSTITUTES OF THE [Boox 11. 


to the Divine favour, that they are accounted worthy both of 
the title and of the reward of righteousness; and so they are 
valuable, only when they are intended as acts of obedience to 
God. Wherefore the apostle, in another place, in order to prove 
that Abraham. could not be justified by works, alleges, that 
“the law was four hundred and thirty years after the covenant 
was confirmed.” (¢) Ignorant persons would ridicule such an 
argument, because there might have been righteous works 
before the promulgation of the law; but knowing that works 
have no such intrinsic worth, independently of the testimony 
and esteem of God, he has taken it for granted that, antece- 
dently to the law, they had no power to justify. We know 
why he expressly mentions ‘‘ the works of the law,” when he 
means to deny justification by works; it is because they alone 
can furnish any occasion of controversy. However, he like- 
wise excludes all works, without any limitation, as when he 
says, ‘‘ David describeth the blessedness of the man, unto 
whom Ged imputeth righteousness without works.” (d) ‘They 
cannot, therefore, by any subtleties prevent us from retaining 
this general exclusive particle. It is in vain, also, that they 
catch at another frivolous subtlety, alleging that we are justi- 
fied only by that ‘faith which worketh by love;” (e) witha 
view to represent righteousness as depending on love. We ac- 
knowledge, indeed, with Paul, that no other faith justifies, ex- 
cept that ‘‘ which worketh by love; ” but it does not derive its 
power to justify from the efficacy of that love. It justifies in 
no other way than as it introduces us into a participation of the 
righteousness of Christ. Otherwise there would be no force in 
the argument so strenuously urged by the apostle. ‘To him 
that worketh,” says he, ‘‘ is the reward not reckoned of grace, 
but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on 
him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for right- 
eousness.’’ (f) Was it possible for him to speak more plainly 
than by thus asserting, that there is no righteousness of faith, 
except where there are no works entitled to any reward ; and 
that faith is imputed for righteousness, only when righteousness 
is conferred through unmerited grace ? 

XXI. Now, let us examine the truth of what has been 
asserted in the definition, that the righteousness of faith is a 
reconciliation with God, which consists solely in remission of 
sins. (g¢) We must always return to this axiom — That the Di- 
vine wrath remains on all men, as long as they continue to be 
sinners. ‘T'his Isaiah has beautifully expressed in the following 
words: ‘The Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot 
save; neither is his ear heavy, that it cannot hear; but your 


(c) Gal. 111. 17. (d) Rom. iv. 6. (e) Gal. v. 6. 
(f) Rom. iv. 4, 5. (g) Sect. II. 


CHAP. XI.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 673 


iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your 
sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.” (h) 
We are informed, that sin makes a division between man and 
God, and turns the Divine countenance away from the sinner. 
Nor can it be otherwise ; because it is incompatible with his 
righteousness to have any communion with sin. Hence the 
apostle teaches, that man is an enemy to God, till he be recon- 
ciled to him through Christ. (¢) Whom, therefore, the Lord re- 
ceives into fellowship, him he is said to justify; because he 
cannot receive any one into favour or into fellowship with him- 
self, without making him froma sinner to be a righteous person. 
This, we add, is accomplished by the remission of sins. For 
if they, whom the Lord has reconciled to himself, be judged 
according to their works, they will still be found actually sin- 
ners; who, notwithstanding, must be absolved and free from 
sin. It appears, then, that those whom God receives, are made 
righteous no otherwise than as they are purified by being 
cleansed from all their defilements by the remission of their 
sins; so that. such a righteousness may, in one word, be deno- 
minated a remission of sins. 

XXII. Both these points are fully established by the lan- 
guage of Paul, which I have already recited. ‘God was in 
Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their 
trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word 
of reconciliation.” (k) Then he adds the substance of his 
ministry : ‘‘ He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no 
sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in 
him.” (4) The terms “righteousness” and ‘reconciliation ” 
are here used by him indiscriminately, to teach us that they 
are mutually comprehended in each other. And he states the 
manner of obtaining this righteousness to consist in our trans- 
gressions not being imputed to us. Wherefore we can no 
longer doubt how God justifies, when we hear that he recon- 
ciles us to himself by not imputing our sins tous. ‘Thus, in 
the Epistle to the Romans, the apostle proves, that ‘‘ God im- 
puteth righteousness without works,’ from the testimony of 
David, who declares, ‘‘ Blessed are they whose iniquities are 
forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to 
whom the Lord will not impute sin.” (m) By “ blessedness,”’ 
in this passage, he undoubtedly means righteousness ; for since 
he asserts it to consist in remission of sins, there is no reason 
for our adopting any other definition of it. Wherefore Zach- 
ariah, the father of John the Baptist, places “ the knowledge 
of salvation” in “the remission of sins.”(m) And Paul, 
observing the same rule in the sermon which he preached to 


(h) Isaiah lix. 1, 2. (k) 2 Cor. v. 19. (m) Rom. iv. 6—38. 
(i) Rom. v. 8—10. (1) 2 Cor. v. 21. (n) Luke 1. 77. 
VOL. I. 85 | 


674 INSTITUTES OF THE [Book m1, 


the people of Antioch on ‘the subject of salvation, is stated by 
Luke to have concluded in the following manner: “ Through 
this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by 
him all that believe are justified from all things, from which 
ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.” (0) The 
apostle thus connects “ forgiveness of sins” with “justifica- 
tion,” to show that they are identically the same; whence he 
justly argues, that this righteousness which we obtain through 
the favour of God is gratuitously bestowed upon us. Nor 
should it be thought a strange expression, that believers are 
justified before God, not by their works, but by his gracious 
acceptance of them; since it occurs so frequently in the 
Scripture, and sometimes also in the fathers. Augustine says, 
“The righteousness of the saints, in this world, consists rather 
in the remission of their sins than in the perfection of their 
virtues.” With which corresponds the remarkable observation 
of Bernard: ‘Not to sin at all, is the righteousness of God; 
but the righteousness of man is the Divine grace and mercy.” 
He had before asserted, ‘that Christ is righteousness to us in 
absolution, and therefore that they alone are righteous who 
have obtained pardon through his mercy.” 

XXIII. Hence, also, it is evident, that we obtain justification 
before God, solely by the intervention of the righteousness of 
Christ. Which is equivalent to saying, that a man is righteous, 
not in himself, but because the righteousness of Christ is com- 
municated to him by imputation; and this is a point which 
deserves an attentive consideration. For it supersedes that idle 
notion, that a man is justified by faith, because faith receives 
the Spirit of God by whom he is made righteous ; which is too 
repugnant to the foregoing doctrine, ever to be reconcilable to it. 
For he must certainly be destitute of all righteousness of his own, 
who is taught to seek a righteousness out of himself. ‘This is 
most clearly asserted by the apostle, when he says, “ He hath 
made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might 
be made the righteousness of God in him.” (p). We see that 
our righteousness is not in ourselves, but in Christ; and that 
all our title to it rests solely on our being partakers of Christ ; 
for in possessing him, we possess all his riches with him. Nor 
does any objection arise from what he states in another place, 
that ‘‘God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, 
and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness 
of the law might be fulfilled in‘us;” (q) where he intends no 
other fulfilment than what we obtain by imputation. For the 
Lord Christ so communicates his righteousness to us, that, with 
reference to the Divine judgment, he transfuses its virtue into 
us in a most wonderful manner. That the apostle intended 


(0) Acts xiii, 38, 39. (p) 2 Cor. v. 21. (q) Rom. viii. 3,4. — 


CHAP. XII. | CHRISTIAN REIIGION, 675 


no other, abundantly appears from another declaration, which 
he had made just before: ‘As by one man’s disobedience 
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shali 
many be made righteous.’”’(r) What is placing our righteous- | 
ness in the obedience of Christ, but asserting, that we are 
accounted righteous only because his obedience is accepted for 
us as if it were ourown? Wherefore Ambrose appears to me 
to have very beautifully exemplified this righteousness in the 
benediction of Jacob ; that as he, who had on his own account 
no claim to the privileges of primogeniture, being concealed in 
his brother’s habit, and invested with his garment, which dif- 
fused a most excellent odour, insinuated himself into the favour 
of his father, that he might receive the benediction to his own 
advantage, under the character of another; so we shelter our- 
selves under the precious purity of Christ our elder brother, that 
we may obtain the testimony of righteousness in the sight of 
God. ‘The words of Ambrose are, ‘‘ That Isaac smelled the 
odour of the garments, perhaps indicates, that we are justified 
not by works, but by faith; since the infirmity of the flesh is 
an impediment to works, but the brightness of faith, which 
merits the pardon of sin, conceals the error of our actions.” And 
such is indeed the real fact ; for that we may appear before the 
face of God to salvation, it is necessary for us to be perfumed 
with his fragrance, and to have all our deformities concealed 
and absorbed in his perfection. 


CHAPTER XII. 


A CONSIDERATION OF THE DIVINE TRIBUNAL, NECESSARY TO A 
SERIOUS CONVICTION OF GRATUITOUS JUSTIFICATION. 


Tuovcn it appears, from the plainest testimonies, that all 
these things are strictly true, yet we shall not clearly discover 
how necessary they are, till we shall have taken a view of 
what ought to be the foundation of all this argument. In the, 
first place, therefore, we should reflect that we are not treating 
of the righteousness of a human court, but of that of the hea- 
venly tribunal; in order that we may not apply any diminutive 
standard of our own, to estimate the integrity of conduct re-_ 
quired to satisfy the Divine justice. But it is wonderful, with 
what temerity and presumption this is commonly decided ; and it 
is even observable, that nomen give us more confident or pom- 
pous declamations concerning the righteousness of works, than 


(r) Rom. v. 19 


676 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK tn, 


those who are notoriously guilty of open sins or addicted te 
secret vices. This arises from their never thinking of the 
righteousness of God, the smallest sense of which would pre- 
vent them from treating it with such contempt. And certainly 
it is exceedingly undervalued, if it be not acknowledged to be 
so perfect that nothing can be acceptable to it but what is 
absolutely complete and immaculate, such as it never was, nor 
ever will be, possible to find in fallen man. It is easy for any 
one in the cloisters of the schools, to indulge himself in idle 
speculations on the merit of works to justify men; but when 
he comes into the presence of God, he must bid farewell to 
these amusements, for there the business is transacted with 
seriousness, and no ludicrous logomachy practised. To this 
point, then, must our attention be directed, if we wish to make 
any useful inquiry concerning true righteousness; how we 
can answer the celestial Judge, when he shall call us to an 
account. Let us place that Judge before our eyes, not accord- 
ing to the spontaneous imaginations of our minds, but ac- 
cording to the descriptions given of him in the Scripture; 
which represents him as one whose refulgence eclipses the 
stars, whose power melts the mountains, whose anger shakes 
the earth, whose wisdom takes the subtle in their own crafti- 
ness, whose purity makes all things appear polluted, whose 
righteousness even the angels are unable to bear, who acquits 
not the guilty, whose vengeance, when it is once kindled, 
penetrates even to the abyss of hell.* Let him seat himself, I 
say, on the tribunal, to examine the actions of men: who will 
present himself fearless before his throne? ‘‘ Who shall dwell 
with the devouring fire?” saith the prophet. ‘ Who shall 
dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh mght- 
eously and speaketh uprightly,” &c.(s) Now let him come 
forward, whoever he is. But this answer causes not one to 
appear. For, on the contrary, we hear this fearful speech, 
“Tf thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall 
stand?’’(¢) In truth, all must speedily perish, as it is written 
in another place, “‘Shall mortal man be more just than God? 
Shall a man be more pure than his Maker? Behold, he put 
no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly ; 
how much less in them that dwell in houses of clay, whose 
foundation is in the dust, which are crushed before the moth? 
They are destroyed from morning to evening.” (w) Again: 
‘Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens 
are not clean in his sight; how much more abominable and 
filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?” (w) I 
confess that in the Book of Job mention is made of a right- 


* See particularly the Book of Job. (s) Isaiah xxxiii. 14, 15. 
(t) Psalm exxx. 3. (u) Job iv. 17—20. (w) Job xv. 15, 16. 


CHAP. xt1.] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 677 


eousness which is superior to the observance of the law. And 
it will be of use to remember this distinction; because, though 
any one could satisfy the law, he could not even then stand 
the scrutiny of that righteousness which exceeds all compre- 
hension. Therefore, though Job is conscious of his own in- 
tegrity, yet he is mute with astonishment, when he sees that 
God could not be pleased even with the sanctity of angels, if 
he were to enter into a strict examination of their works. I 
shall, therefore, now pass over that righteousness to which I 
have alluded, because it is incomprehensible, and content my- 
self with asserting, that we must be worse than stupid, if, on 
_ an examination of our lives by the rule of the written law, we 
are not tormented with awful dread in consequence of so 
many maledictions, which God has designed to arouse us, and 
among the rest this general one: ‘‘ Cursed be he that confirmeth 
not all the words of this law to do them.” (z) In short, this 
whole controversy will be uninteresting and useless, unless 
every one present himself as a criminal before the celestial 
Judge, and voluntarily prostrate and humble himself in deep 
solicitude concerning his absolution. 

II. To this point our eyes ought to have been raised, that 
we might learn rather to tremble through fear, than to indulge 
in vain exultation. It is easy, indeed, while the comparison is 
made only between men, for every man to imagine himself to 
be possessed of something which others ought not to contemn ; 
but when we ascend to the contemplation of God, that confi- 
dence is immediately lost. And the case of our soul with re- 
spect to God is similar to that of our body with respect to the 
visible heavens; for the eye, as long as it is employed in be- 
holding adjacent objects, receives proofs of its own perspica- 
city; but if it be directed towards the sun, dazzled and con- 
founded with his overpowering brightness, it feels no less de- 
bility in beholding him, than strength in the view of inferior ob- 
jects. Let us not, then, deceive ourselves with a vain confidence, 
although we consider ourselves equal or superior to other men. 
That is nothing to God, to whose decision this cause must be 
submitted. But if our insolence cannot be restrained by these 
admonitions, he will reply to us in the language which he 
addressed to the Pharisees: ‘‘ Ye are they which justify your- 
selves before men; but that which is highly esteemed among 
men, is abomination in the sight of God.” (y) Go now, and 
among men proudly glory in your righteousness, while the God 
of heaven abominates it. But what is the language of the 
servants of God, who are truly taught by his Spirit? One 
says, ‘‘ Enter not into judgment with thy servant; for in thy 
sight shall no man living be justified.” (z) And another, 


(x) Deut. xxvu. 26. (y) Luke xvi. 15. (z) Psalm exliii. 2. 


678 INSTITUTES OF THE _[Boox m1. 


though in a sense somewhat different, ‘How should man be 
just with God? If he will contend with him, he cannot 
answer him one of a thousand.” (a) Here we are plainly in- 
formed respecting the righteousness of God, that it is such as 
no human works can satisfy; and such as renders it impossible 
for us, if accused of a thousand crimes, to exculpate ourselves 
from one of them. The same idea of this righteousness had 
very properly been entertained by Paul, that “chosen ves- 
sel” (b) of God, when he professed, ‘“‘ I am conscious to myself 
of nothing; yet am I not hereby justified.” (c) 

III. Nor is it only in the sacred Scriptures that such exam- 
ples are found. All pious writers discover similar sentiments. 
Thus Augustine says, ‘‘The only hope of all the pious, who 
groan under this burden of corruptible flesh, and amidst the 
infirmities of this life, is, that we have a Mediator, Jesus Christ 
the righteous; and he is the propitiation for our sins.” What 
is the meaning of this observation? If this is their only hope, 
where is any confidence in works? For when he asserts this 
to be the only one, he precludes every other. Bernard also 
says, ‘‘ And in fact where can be found safe and solid rest and 
security for the weak, but in the wounds of the Saviour? 
There I dwell with the greater security, in proportion to his 
power to save. ‘The world rages, the body oppresses, the devil 
lies in wait to destroy. Ido not fall, because my foundation 
is on a firm rock. I have committed heinous sin. My con- 
‘science is disturbed, but shall not fall into despair, because I 
shall recall to remembrance the wounds of the Lord.” From 
these considerations he afterwards concludes, “My merit, 
therefore, is the compassion of the Lord: I am clearly not 
destitute of merit, as long as he is not destitute of compassions. 
But if the mercies of the Lord be a multitude of mercies, my 
merits are likewise equally numerous. Shall Ising of my own 
righteousness? . O Lord, I will remember thy righteousness 
alone. For it is mine also, since he is made of God righteous- 
hess unto me.” Again, in another place: ‘This is the whole 
merit of man —to fix all his hope on him who saves the whole 
man.”? Likewise in another place, retaining peace to himself, 
and ascribing the glory to God, he says, ‘To thee let the 
glory remain undiminished. It is happy for me, if I have 
peace. ‘The glory I entirely renounce; lest, if I. usurp what 
is not mine, I lose also that which is offered me.’”? In another 
place he is still more explicit: ‘‘ Why should the Church be 
solicitous about merits, while it has a stronger and more se- 
cure reason for glorying in the designs of God? You need 
not inquire on account of what merits we hope for blessings, 
especially when you read in the prophet, ‘Thus saith the 


(a) Job ix. 2, 3. (b) Acts ix. 15. (c) 1 Cor. iv. 4. 


CHAP. XII. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 679 


Lord God; I do not this for your sakes, but for mine holy | 
name’s sake.’(d) It suffices with respect to merit, to know 
that merits are not sufficient ; but as it suffices for merit not to 
presume on merits, so to be destitute of merits is sufficient 
cause of condemnation.” We must excuse his custom of 
freely using the word merits for good works. But his ulti- 
mate design was to terrify hypocrites, who induige themselves . 
in a licentious course of sin against the grace of God; as he 
presently declares: ‘“ Happy is the Church which wants 
neither merits without presumption, nor presumption without 
merits. It has some ground of presumption, but not merits. 
It has merits, but in order to deserve, not to presume. Is not 
the absence of presumption itself a merit? Therefore the 
Church presumes the more securely, because it does not pre- 
sume, having ample cause for glorying in the multitude of the 
Divine mercies.” 

IV. This is the real truth. The troubled conscience finds 
this to be the only asylum of safety, where it can enjoy any 
tranquillity, when it has to do with the Divine justice. For if 
the stars, which appeared most brilliant during the night, lose 
their splendour on the rising of the sun, what can we suppose 
will be the case with the most excellent innocence of man, 
when compared with the purity of God? For that will be 
ail examination inconceivably severe, which shall penetrate 
into all the most secret thoughts of the heart, and, as Paul 
says, ‘bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make 
manifest the counsels of the hearts ;”’ (e) which shall constrain 
the reluctant conscience to confess all those things which have 
how passed away even from our own remembrance. We shall 
be urged by an accusing devil, who has been privy to all the 
crimes which he has impelled us to perpetrate. ‘There the ex- 
ternal appearance of good works, which now is the sole object 
of esteem, will be of no avail; sincerity of heart is all that will 
be required: Wherefore hypocrisy, not only that by which a 
man, conscious of his guilt before God, affects ostentation before 
men, but that also by which every man imposes on himself 
before God, for we are all prone to self-complacency and adu- 
lation ; hypocrisy in all its forms will then be overwhelmed with 
confusion, however it may now be intoxicated with presump- 
tion and pride. Persons who never look forward to such a 
spectacle, may, indeed, delightfully and complacently compose 
for themselves a temporary righteousness, of which they will 
immediately be stripped at the Divine judgment; just as im- 
mense riches, accumulated by us in a dream, vanish as soon as 
we awake. But they who inquire seriously, and as in the pre- 
sence of God, respecting the true standard of righteousness, 
will certainly find that all the actions of men, if estimated 


(a) Ezek. xxxvi. 22. (e) 1 Cor. iv. 5. 


680 INSTITUTES OF THE [BooK 11 


according to their intrinsic worth, are utterly defiled and pollu- 
ted; that what is commonly considered as righteousness, is, in 
the Divine view, nothing but iniquity ; that what is accounted 
integrity, is mere pollution ; and that what is reputed glory, is 
real ignominy. 

VY. From this contemplation of the Divine perfection, let us 
not be unwilling to descend to take a view of ourselves, with- 
out adulation or blind self-love. For it is not to be wondered 
at, if we are so extremely blind in this respect, since not one of 
us is sufficiently cautious of that pestilent self-indulgence, which 
the Scripture declares to be naturally inherent in usall. “ Every 
way of man,” says Solomon, “is right in his own eyes.” ( f) 
Again: ‘ All the ways of aman are clean in his own eyes.” (g") 
But what follows from this? Is he absolved from guilt by this 
delusion? Not at all; but, as is immediately added, ‘“ the Lord 
weigheth the spirits;” that is, while men are congratulating 
themselves on account of the external mask of righteousness 
which they wear, the Lord is at the same time weighing in 
his own balance the latent impurity of their hearts. Since we 
are so far from deriving any advantage, therefore, from such 
blandishments, let us not voluntarily delude ourselves to our 
own perdition. That we may examine ourselves properly, it 
is necessary for us to summon our conscience to the tribunal of 
God. For we have the greatest need of his hght in order to 
detect the recesses of our depravity, which otherwise are too 
deeply concealed. For then only shall we clearly perceive the 
force of this language: ‘“‘How can man be justified with God — 
man, who is” corruption and ‘a worm, abominable and filthy, 
and who drinketh iniquity hke water?” (h) ‘‘ Who can brmg 
a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.” (2) Then also 
we shall experience what Job said concerning himself: ‘“ If 
justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me; if I say k 
am perfect, it shall also prove mé perverse.” (k/) For the com- 
plaint, which the prophet formerly made respecting Israel, “ All 
we like sheep have gone astray ; we have turned every one to 
his own way ;”’ (/) is applicable not only to one period of time, 
but to all ages. For he there comprehends all to whom the 
grace of redemption was to extend; and the rigour of this ex- 
amination ought to proceed till it shall have filled us with 
complete consternation, and thus prepared us to receive the 
grace of Christ. For he is deceived who supposes himself 
eapable of this enjoyment, without having first been truly 
humbled. It is a well-known observation, that ‘‘God resisteth 
the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.” (#7) 

VI. But what means have we of humbling ourselves, except 
by submitting, all poor and destitute, to the Divine merey ? 


(f) Prov. xxi. 2. (g) Prov. xvi. 2. (hk) Job xv. 16; xxv.4,6. — 
4) Job xiv. 4. (k) Job ix. 20. (l) Isaiah li. 6. (m) 1 Peter v. 5. 


CHAP. x11. ] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 681 


For I do not call it humility, if we suppose that we have any 
thing left. And hitherto they have taught a pernicious hypo- 
crisy, Who have connected these two maxims — that we should 
entertain humble thoughts of ourselves before God, and that we 
should attach some dignity to our own righteousness. For if 
we address to God a confession which is contrary to our real 
sentiments, we are guilty of telling him an impudent falsehood ; 
but we cannot think of ourselves as we ought to think, with- 
out utterly despising every thing that may be supposed an ex- 
cellence in us. When we hear, therefore, from the Psalmist, 
that “‘God will save the afflicted people, but will bring down 
high looks,” (2) let us consider, first, that there is no way of 
salvation till we have laid aside all pride, and attained sincere 
humility ; secondly, that this humility is not a species of 
modesty, consisting in conceding to God a small portion of 
what we might justly claim, as they are called humble among 
men, who neither haughtily exalt themselves nor behave with 
insolence to others, while they nevertheless entertain some 
consciousness of excellence: this humility is the unfeigned 
submission of a mind overwhelmed with a weighty sense of its 
own misery and poverty; for such is the uniform description 
of it in the word of God. When the Lord speaks thus in 
Zephaniah, ‘‘1 will take away out of the midst of thee them 
that rejoice in thy pride; I will also leave in the midst of thee 
an afflicted and poor people, and they shall trust in the name of 
the Lord ;” (0) does he not clearly show who are truly humble ? 
even such as are afflicted with a knowledge of their own poverty. 
On the contrary, he describes the proud as persons “ rejoicing,”’ 
because this is the usual consequence of prosperity. But to the 
humble, whom he intends to save, he leaves nothing but that 
‘“‘they trust in the name of the Lord.” Thus also in Isaiah, 
“To this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a 
contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.” (p) Again: 
“Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, 
whose name is Holy ; I dwell in the high and holy place, with 
him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the 
spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite 
ones.” (q) By the contrition so frequently mentioned, we must 
understand a wounded heart, which prevents a man from rising 
when humbled in the dust. With such contrition must our 
heart be wounded, if we desire, according to the declaration of 
the Lord, to be exalted with the humble. If this be not the 
case, we shall be abased by the powerful hand of God to our 
shame and disgrace. (7) 

VII. And, not content with mere precepts, our excellent 


(n) Psalm xviii. 27. (p) Isaiah Ixvi. 2. (r) Matt. xxiii.12. Luke xiv. 
(o) Zeph. iit. 11, 12. (q) Isaiah lvii. 15. 11; xvii. 14. 
VoL 1 86 


682. INSTITUTES OF THE [Book mt 


Master, in a parable, as in a picture, has presented us with an ex- 
ample of genuine humility. For he introduces a publican, who, 
“standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto 
heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to 
me a sinner.’’ (s) We must not conclude these circumstances 
—his not presuming to look upwards, standing afar off, smiting 
upon his breast, and confessing himself a sinner —to be marks 
of feigned modesty ; we may be certain that they were sincere 
evidences of the disposition of his heart. 'To him our Lord 
opposes a Pharisee, who said, ‘God, I thank thee that I am not 
as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this 
publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I 
possess.” He openly confesses the righteousness which he 
has, to be the gift of God; but because he confides in his being 
righteous, he departs from the presence of God unacceptable 
and hateful tohim. The publican, acknowledging his iniquity 

is justified. Hence we may see how very pleasing our humi- 
liation is in the sight of God; so that the heart is not open for 
the reception of his mercy unless it be divested of all idea of 

its own dignity. When this notion has occupied the mind, it 
precludes the admission of Divine mercy. ‘That no one might 
have any doubt of this, Christ was sent by his Father mto the 
world with a commission, “to preach good tidings unto the 
meek; to bind up the broken-hearted ; to proclaim hberty to 
the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are 
bound; to comfort all that mourn; to give unto them beauty 
for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for: 
the spirit of heaviness.” (¢) In pursuance of this commission, 
he invites to a participation of his benefits none but those who 
“labour and are heavy laden.” (w) And in another place he 
says, “‘l am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to re- 
pentance.” (v) 

VIII. Therefore, if we would obey the call of Christ, let us 
dismiss all arrogance and carelessness from our minds. The 
former arises from a foolish persuasion of our own righteous- 
ness, when a man supposes himself to be possessed of any thing, 
the merit of which can recommend him to God; the latter may 
exist without any consideration of works. For multitudes of 
sinners, inebriated with criminal pleasures, and forgetful of the 
Divine judgment, are in a state, as it were, of lethargic insensi- 
bility, so that they never aspire after the mercy which is offered 
to them. But it is equally necessary for us to shake off such 
stupidity, and to reject all confidence in ourselves, in order that, | 
being freed from every incumbrance, we may hasten to Christ, 
all destitute and hungry, to be filled with his blessings. For 
we shall never have sufficient confidence in him, unless 


(s) Luke xvii. 13. () Isaiah Ixi. 13. (uw) Matt. xi. 28. (w) Matt. ix. 13 


CHAP. XII. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 683 


we entirely lose all confidence in ourselves; we shall never 
find sufficient encouragement in him, unless we are previously 
dejected in ourselves; we shall never enjoy sufficient consola- 
tion in him, unless we are utterly disconsolate in ourselves. 
We are prepared, therefore, to seek and obtain the grace of God, 
discarding at the same time all confidence in ourselves, and re- 
lying solely on the assurance of his mercy, ‘‘ when,” as Augus- 
tine says, ‘‘ forgetting our own merits, we embrace the free gifts 
of Christ ; because, if he sought merits in us, we should not 
come to his free gifts.” With him Bernard fully agrees, when 
he compares proud men, that arrogate ever so little to their own 
merits, to unfaithful servants, because they unjustly claim the 
praise of the grace which passes through them; just as though 
a wall should say that it produces the sunbeams which it re- 
ceives through a window. But not to dwell any longer on 
this, we may lay it down as a brief, but general and certain 
maxim, that he is prepared for a participation of the benefits 
of Divine mercy, who has wholly divested himself, I will not 
say of his righteousness, which is a mere nullity, but of the 
vain and airy phantom of righteousness; for as far as any man 
is satisfied with himself, so far he raises an impediment to the 
exercise of the grace of God. 


CHAPTER XIII. 


TWO THINGS NECESSARY TO BE OBSERVED IN GRATUITOUS 
JUSTIFICATION. 


Here are two things to which we must always be particu- 
larly attentive; to maintain the glory of the Lord unimpaired 
and undiminished, and to preserve in our own consciences a 
placid composure and serene tranquillity with regard to the 
Divine judgment. We see how frequently and solicitously the 
Scripture exhorts us to render ascriptions of praise to God alone, 
when it treats of justification. And, indeed, the apostle assures 
us that the design of the Lord in conferring righteousness upon 
us in Christ, is to manifest his own righteousness. ‘The nature 
or that manifestation he immediately subjoins: it is, ‘that he 
might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in 
Jesus.’ (w) The righteousness of God, we see, is not suffi- 
ciently illustrious, unless he alone be esteemed righteous, and 
communicate the grace of justification to the unworthy. For 
this reason it is his will ‘that every mouth be stopped, and all 


(w) Rom. iii. 26. 


« 


684 INSTITUTES OF THE [BOOK af + 


the world become guilty before him; ” (x) because, as long as 
man has any thing to allege in his own defence, it detracts 
something from the glory of God. Thus in Ezekiel he 
teaches us how greatly we glorify his name by an acknow- 
ledgment of our iniquity: ‘“ Ye shall remember your ways, 
(saith he,) and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled ; 
and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your 
evils that ye have committed. And ye shall know that I am 
the Lord, when I have wrought with you for my name’s sake, 
not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your cor- 
rupt doings.” (y) If these things are contained in the true 
knowledge of God, that, humbled with a consciousness of our 
iniquity, we should consider him as indulging us with bless- 
ings of which we are unworthy, why do we attempt, to our 
own serious injury, to pilfer the smallest particle of the praise 
due to his gratuitous goodness? Thus also when Jeremiah 
proclaims, ‘‘ Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither 
let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man 
glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in the 
Lord ;’’(z) does he not suggest that the glory of God sustains 
some diminution, if any man glory in himself? 'To this use 
these words are clearly applied by Paul, when he states, that 
all the branches of our salvation are deposited with Christ, 
that we may not glory except in’ the Lord.(a@) For he inti- 
mates, that they who suppose themselves to have even the 
least ground for glorying in themselves, are guilty of rebelling 
against God, and obscuring his glory. 

TiaAThe truth, then, is, that we never truly glory in him, till 
we have entirely renounced all glory of our own. On the 
converse, this may be admitted as an axiom universally true, that 
they who glory in themselves, glory in opposition to God. For 
Paul is of opinion that the world is not ‘‘ subject to the judg- 
ment of God,’ till men are deprived of all foundation for glory- 
ing.(b) 'Therefore Isaiah, when he announces, that ‘in the 
Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified,’ adds also, ‘‘ and 
shall glory ;”? as though he had said, that the end of God in 
justifying the elect was, that they might glory in himself, and 
in no other. But how we should glory in the Lord, he had 
stated in the preceding verse: ‘ Stirely, shall one say, in the 
Lord have I righteousness and strength.” Let us observe, that — 
what is required is.not a simple confession, but a confession 
confirmed by an oath}.that we may not suppose any fictitious 
pretence of humility to be.sufficient. (c) Here let no one plead 

that he does not glory at all)swhen without arrogance he recog- 
nizes his own righteousness ; fox.such an opinion cannot exist 


(x) Rom. iii. 19. (z) Jer. ix. 23, 24. 


b) Rom. iii. 19. 
(y) Ezek. xx. 43, 44. (a) 1 Cor. 1. 29—31. ” 


(c) Isaiah xlv. 23—25. 


CHAP. xt] CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 685 


without generating confidence, nor confidence without being 
attended with glorying. Let us remember, therefore, in the 
whole controversy concerning righteousness, that this end must 
be kept in view, that all the praise of it may remain perfect 
and undiminished with the Lord ; because, aceording to the 
apostle’s testimony, he has bestowed his grace on us in order 
“to declare his righteousness ; that he might be just, and the 
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” (d) Wherefore, in 
another place, after having declared that the Lord has conferred 
salvation on us in order to display ‘‘the praise of the glory of 
his grace,’ (e) repeating, as it were, the same sentiment, he 
adds, ‘‘ By grace are ye saved through faith ; and that not of 
yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man 
should boast.” (f) And when Peter admonishes us that we 
are called to the hope of salvation, ‘‘ that we should show forth 
the praises (or virtues) of him who hath called us out of dark- 
ness into his marvellous light,” (g¢) he evidently means that the 
praises of God alone should resound in the ears of believers, 
so as to impose total silence on all the presumption of the flesh. 
The conclusion of the whole is, that man cannot without sa- 
crilege arrogate to himself the least particle of righteousness, 
because it is so much detracted and diminished from the glory 
of the righteousness of God. 

_ IIL. Now, if we inquire by what means the conscience can 
obtain peace before God, we shall find no other than our re- 
ception of gratuitous righteousness from his free gift. Let us 
always remember the inquiry of Solomon — ‘‘ Who can say, I 
have made my heart clean, Iam pure from my sin?”(h) It 
is certain that there is no man who is not covered with infinite 
pollution. Letaman of the most perfect character, then, retire 
into his own conscience, and enter into a scrutiny of his ac- 
tions, and what will be the result? Will he feel a high degree 
of satisfaction, as though there were the most entire agreement 
between God and him? or will he not rather be lacerated with 
terrible agonies, on perceiving in himself such ample cause for 
condemnation, if he be judged according to his works? If the 
conscience reflect on God, it must either enjoy a solid peace 
with his judgment, or be surrounded with the terrors of hell. 
We gain nothing, therefore, in our discussions of this point, 
unless we establish a righteousness, the stability of which will 
support our souls under the scrutiny of the Divine judgment. 
When our souls shall possess what will enable them to appear 
with boldness in the presence of God, and to await and receive 
his judgment without any fear, then, and not before, we may 
be assured that we have found a righteousness which truly 


(d) Rom. iii. 26. __ _(e) Ephes. i. 6. (f) Ephes. ii. 8. 
. (g) 1 Peter ii. 9. (h) Prov. xx. 9. 


686 . INSTITUTES OF THE [Book mn 


deserves the name. It is not without reason, therefore, that this 
subject is so largely insisted on by the apostle, whose words I 
prefer to my own: ‘ For if they which are of the law be heirs, 
faith is made void, and the promise is made of none effect.” (4) 
He first infers, that faith is annulled and superseded, if the 
promise of righteousness respect the merit of our works, or 
depend on our observance of the law. For no man could ever 
securely rely on it, since he never would be able to determine 
with certainty for himself that he had fulfilled the law, as in 
fact no man ever does completely satisfy it by any works of his 
own. Not to seek far for testimonies of this fact, every indi- 
vidual may be his own witness of it, who will enter unpreju- 
diced into an examination of himself. And hence it appears 
in what deep and dark recesses hypocrisy buries the minds of 
men, while they indulge themselves in such great security, and 
hesitate not to oppose their self-adulation to the judgment of 
God, as though they would stop the proceedings of his tribunal. 
But believers, who sincerely examine themselves, are trou- 
bled and distressed with a solicitude of a very different nature. 
The minds of men universally, therefore, ought to feel first 
hesitation, and then despair, while considering, every one for 
himself, the magnitude of the debt with which they are still 
oppressed, and their immense distance from the conditions pre- 
scribed to them. Behold their confidence already broken and 
extinguished ; for to confide is not to fluctuate, to vary, to be 
hurried hither and thither, to hesitate, to be kept in suspense, 
to stagger, and finally to despair; but it is, to strengthen the 
mind with content, certainty, and solid security, and to have 
somewhat upon which to stand and to rest. 

IV. He adds likewise another consideration, that the promise 
would be void and of none effect. For if the fulfilment of it 
depend on our merit, when shall we have made such a progress 
as to deserve the favour of God? Besides, this second argu- 
ment is a consequence of the former, since the promise will ‘be 
fulfilled to those alone who shall exercise faith in it. There- 
fore, if faith be wanting, the promise will retain no force. 
‘Therefore the inheritance is of faith, that it might, be by 
grace ; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed.” (x) 
For it is abundantly confirmed, when it depends solely on the © 
Divine mercy ; because mercy and truth are connected by an 
indissoluble bond, and whatever God mercifully promises, he 
also faithfully performs. ‘Thus David, before he implores sal- 
vation for himself according to the word of God, first repre- 
sents it as originating in his mercy: ‘‘ According to thy word 
unto thy servant, let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I 
may live.” (2) And for this there is sufficient reason, since 


(¢) Rom. iv. 14. (k) Rom. iv. 16. (1) Psalm cxix. 76, 77. 


cHap. x11. | CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 687 


God has no other inducement to promise than what arises from 
his mere mercy. Here, then, we must place, and, as it were, 
deeply fix, all our hopes, without regarding our own works, or 
seeking any assistance from them. Nor must it be supposed 
that we are advancing a new doctrine, for the same conduct is 
recommended by Augustine. ‘Christ,’ says he, ‘ will reign 
in his servants for ever. God has promised this, God has 
said it; if that be insufficient, God has sworn it. Since the 
promise, therefore, is established, not according to our merits, 
but according to his mercy, no man ought to speak with anx- 
iety of that which he cannot doubt.’? Bernard also says, ‘‘ The 
disciples of Christ asked, Whocan be saved? He replied, With 
men this is impossible, but not with God. 'Thisis all our con- 
fidence, this our only consolation, this the whole foundation of 
our hope. But certain of the possibility, what think we of his 
will? Who knows whether he deserve love or hatred ? (m) 
Who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his 
counsellor?(m) Here, now, we evidently need faith to help‘us, 
and his truth to assist us; that what is concealed from us in 
the heart of the Father, may be revealed by the Spirit, and 
that the testimony of the Spirit may persuade our hearts that 
we are sons of God; that he may persuade us by calling and 
justifying us freely by faith ; in which there is, as it were, an 
intermediate passage from eternal predestination to future glory.” 
Let us draw the following brief conclusion: The Scripture 
declares that the promises of God have no efficacy, unless they 
be embraced by the conscience with a steady confidence ;-and 
whenever there is any doubt or uncertainty, it pronounces them 
to be made void. Again, it asserts that they have no stability 
if they depend on our works. Either, therefore, we must be 
for ever destitute of righteousness, or our works must not come 
into consideration, but the ground must be occupied by faith 
alone, whose nature it is to open the ears and shut the eyes; 
that is, to be intent only on the promise, and to avert the 
thoughts from all human dignity or merit. Thus is accom- 
plished that remarkable prophecy of Zechariah: “I will 
remove the iniquity of that landin one day. In that day, saith 
the Lord of hosts, shall ye call every man his neighbour under 
the vine and under the fig-tree;’’ (0) in which the prophet 
suggests that believers enjoy no true peace till after they 
have obtained the remission of their sins. For this analogy 
must be observed in the prophets, that when they treat of the 
kingdom of Christ, they exhibit the external bounties of God 
as figures of spiritual blessings. Wherefore also Christ is 
denominated “the Prince of peace,” and “our Peace; ” (p) 


(m) Eccles. ix. 1. (0) Zech. iii. 9, 10.. 
(n) 1 Cor. ii. 16. (p) Isaiah ix. 6. Ephes. ii. 14. 


y 


688 INSTITUTES OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. [BOOK UL. 


because he calms all the agitations of the conscience. If we 
inquire, by what means; we must come to the sacrifice by 
which God is appeased. For no man will ever lose his fears 
who shall not be assured that God is propitiated solely by that 
atonement which Christ has made by sustaining his wrath. In 
short, we must seek for peace only in the terrors of Christ our 
Redeemer. | 

V. But why do I use such an obscure testimony? Paul in- 
variably denies that peace or tranquillity can be enjoyed in the 
conscience, without a certainty that we are justified by faith. (q) 
And he also declares whence that certainty proceeds; it is 
‘“‘ because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the 
Holy Ghost ;”’ (7) as though he had said that our consciences 


can never be satisfied without a certain persuasion of our ac-. 


ceptance with God. Hence he exclaims in the name of all be- 
lievers, “‘ Who shall separate us from the love of God which 
is in Christ ?’’(s) For till we have reached that port of safety, 
we shall tremble with alarm at every slightest breeze; but 
while God shall manifest himself as our Shepherd, we shall 
fear no evil even in the valley of the shadow of death. (¢) 
Whoever they are, therefore, who pretend that we are justified 
by faith, because, being regenerated, we are righteous by living 
a spiritual life, they have never tasted the sweetness of grace, 
so as to have confidence that God would be propitious to them. 
Whence also it follows, that they know no more of the method 
of praying aright, than the Turks or any other profane nations. 
For-according to the testimony of Paul, faith is not genuine un- 
less it dictate and suggest that most delightful name of Father, 
and unless it open our mouth freely to cry, ‘‘ Abba, Father ; ”’ (2) 
which he in another place expresses still more clearly: ‘In 
Christ we have boldness and access with confidence by the 
faith of him.’ (v) This certainly arises not from the gift of 
regeneration ; which, being always imperfect in the present 
state, contains in itself abundant occasion of doubting. Where- 
fore it is necessary to come to this remedy; that believers 
should conclude that they cannot hope for an inheritance in 
the kingdom of heaven on any other foundation, but because, 
being ingrafted into the body of Christ, they are gratuitously 
accounted righteous. For with respect to justification, faith is 
a thing merely passive, bringing nothing of our own to con- 
ciliate the favour of God, but receiving what we need from 
Christ. 


(q) Rom. v. 1. (s) Rom. viii. 35, &c. (u) Gal. iv. 6. 
(r) Rom. v. 5. (t) Psalm xxiii. 4. (v) Ephes. iii. 12. 


END OF VOL. I. 


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